Synthesis of TiO2 nanopellet by TiCl4 as a precursor for degradation of RhodamineB

In the present investigation in order to promote TiO2 pellet structure and its photocatalytic activity, two new precursors were synthesized in the powder and sol forms, using sol–gel method with precipitation of TiCl4. Since TiO2 pellets are normally synthesized by the commercial TiO2 powder (DegussaP25), in this investigation and in the first step a new synthesized TiO2 powder was produced and compared with DegussaP25. Subsequently, two types of pellet were made by the new synthesized powder and titania sol. The characterization of the synthesized TiO2 powder and pellet were performed by XRD, FT-IR, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The result showed that by the new procedure utilized here, without using any additive not only the surface area of the produced TiO2 powder has been increased, but also the crystalline phase is completely in the anatase form. It was also found that the synthesized pellets by the sol precursor had better morphological structure than the synthesized pellets by theTiO2 powder (either DegussaP25 or new synthesized powder). Ultimately, in order to evaluate photocatalytic activity of TiO2 powders and pellet, degradation of RhodamineB was tested.