Application of tetrahydrofuran dispersant in microemulsion for fabricating titania mesoporous thin film

• Published in: Journal of colloid and interface science Vol. 314; no. 2; pp. 584 - 588
• Main Authors: Tang, Xiao, Qian, Jueshi, Huang, Jiamu, Wang, Hua, Zhu, Xiaohong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Diego, CA Elsevier Inc 15.10.2007; Elsevier
• Subjects: Chemistry; Colloidal state and disperse state; Dispersant; Emulsions. Microemulsions. Foams; Exact sciences and technology; General and physical chemistry; Mesoporous thin film; Micelles. Thin films; Microemulsion; Porous materials; Reverse micelle; Surface physical chemistry; Tetrahydrofuran; Titania; Tetrahydrofuran; Dispersant; Mesoporous thin film; Microemulsion; Titania; Reverse micelle; Transition element compounds; Titanium oxide; Porous material; Mesoporosity; Thin film
• ISSN: 0021-9797; 1095-7103
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2007.05.053

A new strategy was used to fabricate titania mesoporous thin film by incorporating tetrahydrofuran (THF) into the CTAB/ n-butyl alcohol/cyclohexane/water reverse microemulsion as a micelle disperser. Highly dispersed and congregated TiO 2 particles in the microemulsion with and without THF were observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. The photographs observed by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) show that a uniform titania mesoporous thin film with monodisperse TiO 2 spherical nanoparticles of ca. 20 nm was obtained using the microemulsion with THF. In the quaternary microemulsion, incorporating THF is able to disperse the reverse micelles before the hydrolysis of tetrabutyl titanate occurs in the water cores. Hence the resulting TiO 2 nano-particles are spheres and highly dispersed in the microemulsion, which improves the morphology of TiO 2 mesoporous thin film.