Low temperature process for the synthesis of rutile phase titania through vapor phase hydrolysis

The use of amorphous titanium oxide precursors generated during vapor phase hydrolysis with ethanol as a dopant for conversion to rutile phase titanium dioxide at the low transformation temperature, was reported. The hydrolysis reaction took place in an aerosol reactor of ID2.5cm and 1.5 m in length, heated externally in a horizontal electric furnance. It was observed that the presence of alcohol could modify the size and morphology of titanium dioxide in aqueous phase due to changes in the dielectric constant. It was also observed that ethanol molecules could be adsorbed onto amorphous precursor and could be oxidized to carbon dioxide during calcination thereby creating oxygen vacancies in the lattice.