Facile Synthesis of Nanostructured Anatase Titania with Controllable Morphology via Oxidation of TiC with Hydrogen Peroxide

Figure 5

The aging effect on the acidic solution produced by dissolution of TiC into H₂O₂ aqueous solution for 10 hours. (a) TEM image showing that the meshed network of entwining 2D nanosheets was changed to the meshed network of cottony hairs by the aging for 3 days. Inset is an enlarged TEM image showing the presence of many crystallized nanograins. (b) TEM image showing the formation of rice-shaped nanoparticles after the aging for 7 days. On the meshed background, some undeveloped nanoparticles are marked out by red ovals, indicating that the rice-shaped nanoparticles should evolve from aggregation of cottony hairs. Inset is an enlarged TEM image of a rice-shaped nanoparticle, revealing that the rice-shaped nanoparticle is actually constructed with many nanocrystals of size less than 5 nm. (c) HRTEM image of the rice-shaped nanoparticle (inset in (b)) and the corresponding FFT power pattern (inset). The red circles label out the nanopores.

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