Deposition of a titania coating on silica by means of the chemical surface coating

A chemically bound TiO2 layer was created on silica by using a grafting method called "Chemical Surface Coating". TiCl4 and H2O were used as reagents in successive cycles. The surface reactions and surface species attached to the silica were characterized by elemental analysis as well as X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared, Raman, and W-diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The TiOx layer constitutes of nanoparticles of anatase homogeneously spread over the surface. Calcination of the TiO2-SiO2 materials leads to a particle size increase. An extensive pore size analysis was also undertaken to investigate the morphological changes as a function of the number of reaction cycles.