Conductive Nanosized Magnéli-Phase TiO with a Core@Shell Structure.

Magnéli-phase TiO, known for its high electrical conductivity and corrosion resistance, is typically prepared by hydrogen reduction at high temperatures (∼1000 °C), leading to large particles. Nanosized TiO have been explored for application toward high specific surface area electrode materials and electrocatalyst supports; nonetheless, the particle size of TiO is still insufficient for utilization as a support. In this study, we have pursued a novel synthetic approach for nanosized TiO platelets with a length of 10-80 nm and thickness of 3-10 nm even under high-temperature conditions. We herein describe the use of SiO beads as a core to obtain a SiO core coated with multilayers of TiO nanosheets exfoliated from layered HTiO which is subsequently subjected to high-temperature reduction to prepare a SiO-core@TiO-shell structure. The pair distribution function technique has proven that the shell is transformed to single-phase TiO. The electrical double layer capacitance of SiO-core@TiO-shell was much larger than that of conventionally synthesized TiO particles with a micrometer size. The results show the beneficial effects of the SiO-core@TiO-shell structure, and it is the first example of the synthesis for conductive TiO with a high specific surface area even under conditions of high-temperature synthesis.