Aggregation kinetics of sol-gel process based on titanium tetraisopropoxide

The kinetics of hydrolysis and condensation of titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) under neutral conditions has been investigated by a light scattering method for different TTIP and water concentrations. The evaluation of kinetics data confirmed the complex nature of the process, which includes hydrolysis, condensation and aggregation of primary particles. Instead of commonly used inverse value of induction time, the rate of an individual particle mass growth for the adequate description of kinetics during induction period was used. Taking into account the initial water consumption allowed a unified description of kinetic data in different ranges of reagent concentrations to be obtained. (C) 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers.