Two-step solochemical synthesis of ZnO/TiO2 nano-composite materials

ZnO/TiO2 nano-composite powder of 50 mol% of Zn and 50 mol% of Ti was obtained by the two-step solochemical technique. In this method, two separate sols containing zinc and titanium were prepared and mixed together. The precursor sol of zinc was prepared from an aqueous solution of (NH4)2ZnO2. The precursor titanium tetra isopropoxide (TTIP) dissolved in isopropanol, to which deionized water and then citric acid were added was used as sol of titanium. Two obtained sols were mixed in an appropriate ratio and then sonicated. The mixture prepared was dried spontaneously and the obtained nano-powder characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The nano-composite films were deposited by dip-coating technique on a glass plate and thermally treated at 80 °C for 30 min and heated at 600 °C for 1 h in an oxygen atmosphere.