Pyrolysis study of sol-gel derived TiO2 powders -: Part III.: TiO2-anatase prepared by reacting titanium(IV) isopropoxide with acetic acid

A homogeneous TiO2 gel was obtained by hydrolysing titanium(IV) isopropoxide that was previously modified by reaction with acetic acid. The so stabilized precursor was hydrolysed under strong acidic medium (pH=0 by HCl). Dried TiO2 powders were characterized by FT-IR, XRD, N-2 adsorption analyses, coupled thermogravimetric (TG) gas chromatographic (GC) and mass spectrometric (MS) analyses. A semiquantitative analysis of the main evolved chemical species allowed to depict both the chemical rearrangements occurring in the TiO2 matrix during pyrolysis and the chemical composition of the initial gel.