Preparation and characterization of highly dispersed nanocrystalline rutile powders

A highly dispersed nanocrystalline rutile powder (NRP) having ultrafine and narrow-distributed diameters was successfully prepared via an improved conventional liquid one-step method by introducing dioctyl sulfosuccinate sodium salt (AOT) surfactant in the peptization reaction anaphase. The average grain size of the product is 10-20 nm. The effects of the titanium tetrabutoxide (Ti(OBu)4) to ethanol volumetric ratio, the precipitation temperature, the peptization temperature and the presence of dioctyl sulfosuccinate sodium salt (AOT) on the preparation of NRP were studied. A new procedure for synthesizing NRP is proposed, and the optimum conditions for preparing NRP were obtained. The TEM, XRD, SEM and FT-IR results were also investigated in this work.