A facile synthesis of nanocrystalline anatase TiO2 from TiOSO4 aqueous solution

•Anatase TiO2 is prepared from thermal hydrolysis of TiOSO4 aqueous solution without calcination.•Anatase TiO2 shows high stability as the transformation to rutile occurs at 900 °C.

A green and simple synthetic route via a thermal hydrolysis of titanyl sulphate (TiOSO4) has been employed to prepare nanocrystalline anatase titanium dioxide (TiO2) without further calcination. X-ray diffraction (XRD) clearly showed that the anatase crystalline structure was already formed under the reaction conditions at 80.0±2.0 °C. The obtained anatase TiO2 showed high thermal stability as the anatase-to-rutile transformation in only 25 wt% occurred at 900 °C. Scanning electron (SEM) and transmission electron (TEM) micrographs revealed that TiO2 secondary particles comprised irregular primary particles with diameters of 8–22 nm depending on the calcination temperature. Superior UV-light absorption intensity compared with the commercial P25 TiO2suggested the great potential of the obtained material for use as a highly efficient photocatalyst under UV irradiation.