The superhydrophilicity of Al–TiO2 nanometer sized material synthesized using a solvothermal method

This study focuses on the surface properties of nano-sized Al–TiO2 synthesized by a solvothermal method. The results indicate that the Al/TiO2 particles, which are below 25 nm in size, exhibited a uniformly spherical anatase structure. The results of XRD and FT-Raman spectra showed that the Al ion was well incorporated into TiO2 anatase framework. The Al-incorporated TiO2 exhibited a larger (195–299 m2/g) area compared with that formed by pure TiO2 (45 m2/g). In addition, the XPS spectra showed that Al–TiO2 possessed a higher hydrophilic property than pure TiO2 did. Consequently, these results of characterization supported our proposition that super-hydrophilicity was enhanced in Al–TiO2 than that in pure TiO2, it resulted from the contact angle below 1° for water droplets under 365 nm radiations.