Physicochemistry of Carbon Materials Research Group, Faculty of Chemistry, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Gagarina 7, 87-100 Toruń, Poland.
Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biological and Veterinary Sciences, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Lwowska 1, 87-100 Toruń, Poland.
Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Feb 23;23(5):2460. doi: 10.3390/ijms23052460.
Titanium dioxide is one of the best described photosensitive materials used in photocatalysis, solar cells, self-cleaning coatings, and sunscreens. The scientific and industrial attention has been focused on the highly photoactive crystalline phase of titanium dioxide (TiO). It is commonly accepted that the smaller TiO particles, the higher photoactivity they present. Therefore, titanium dioxide nanoparticles are massively produced and widely used in everyday products. The amorphous phase of titanium dioxide has been treated with neglect, as the lack of its photocatalytic properties is assumed in advance. In this work, the complex experimental proof of the UV-protective properties of the nano-sized amorphous TiO phase is reported. Amorphous n-TiO is characterized by photocatalytic inactivity and, as a consequence, low cytotoxicity to fibroblast cells. When exposed to UV radiation, cells with amorphous TiO better survive under stress conditions. Thus, we postulate that amorphous n-TiO will be more beneficial and completely safe for cosmetic applications. Moreover, the results from in situ FTIR studies let us correlate the low toxicity of amorphous samples with low ability to form hydroperoxo surface species.
二氧化钛是光催化、太阳能电池、自清洁涂层和防晒霜中应用最广泛的光敏材料之一。科学界和工业界一直关注的是具有高光活性的二氧化钛（TiO）结晶相。人们普遍认为，TiO 颗粒越小，其光活性越高。因此，二氧化钛纳米颗粒被大规模生产，并广泛应用于日常产品中。二氧化钛的非晶相一直被忽视，因为事先假定它没有光催化性能。在这项工作中，报告了纳米尺寸非晶 TiO 相的紫外线防护性能的复杂实验证明。非晶 n-TiO 表现出光催化活性，因此对成纤维细胞的细胞毒性低。当暴露于紫外辐射下时，具有非晶 TiO 的细胞在应激条件下更好地存活。因此，我们假设非晶 n-TiO 将更有益于化妆品应用，并完全安全。此外，原位傅里叶变换红外（FTIR）研究的结果使我们能够将非晶样品的低毒性与形成过氧表面物种的低能力联系起来。
