Study of phase development and thermal stability in as synthesized TiO2 nanoparticles by laser pyrolysis: ethylene uptake and oxygen enrichment

Laser pyrolysis has proven a viable and trustworthy method of TiO2 nanoparticles fabrication, ensuring good quality and wide variety of nanoparticle morphologies and sizes. This work is aimed to phase control, experimentally studied, by parameter modulation, during one step laser pyrolysis synthesis or in combination with thermal annealing. High phase purity anatase and rutile TiO2 nanoparticles, oxygen abundant, are synthesized from TiCl4 and C2H4 gas mixtures, in the presence of air as oxygen donor, under CO2 laser radiation. The nano-titania samples are analyzed by X-ray Diffraction, EDAX, TEM and Raman spectroscopy and reveal good phase stability and distinct morphology. This study extends the method applicability onto rutile majoritarian TiO2 synthesis and generation of thermally stable anatase titania, a well-known catalyst.