Pulsed electric field assisted sol–gel preparation of TiO2 nanoparticles

• TiO2 nanoparticles were prepared by pulsed electric field assisted sol–gel method.
• Crystallite size was calculated and the results were resembled with Raman analysis.
• The band gap energy was calculated using UV-diffuse reflectance spectrum.
• The crystallite size and grain size variation were determined in the HRTEM images.

This work studies the effect of a pulsed electric field (PEF) on the precipitation and properties of TiO2 nanoparticles. TiO2 nanoparticles were prepared using pulsed DC electric field assisted sol–gel method. The duration of the PEF treatment was varied to investigate its effect on the particle size of TiO2 nanoparticles. The nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, UV diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-DRS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It was found that TiO2 particles prepared with pulsed electric field assisted sol-gel method had enhanced average crystallite size due to the effect of the pulsed electric field on primary nucleation. The effect of electric field on nanoparticle preparation is interesting which can be used to control the grain and crystallite size of nanoparticle.