Titania nanoparticles synthesis in mesoporous molecular sieve MCM-41

Nanocrystalline titanium oxide (TiO₂) is one of the most useful oxide material, because of its widespread applications in photocatalysis, solar energy conversion, sensors and optoelectronics. The control of particle size and monodispersity of TiO₂ nanoparticles is a challenging task. The use of MCM-41, an inorganic template of uniform pore size (2-10 nm), can overcome this difficulty and produce stable nanoparticles of uniform size and shape. Here, we demonstrate the synthesis of titania nanoparticles inside the pores of silica based MCM-41 forming a TiO₂/Si-MCM composite. Composites are formed in the alcoholic medium by incipient wetness impregnation method. Titania particles of average 3 nm size are obtained. Effect of silica and titania precursors on the quality of nanoparticles has been investigated. The characterization of titania-MCM-41 composites has been carried out using a variety of techniques like UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, FT-IR spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy. It has been found that the titania particles are co-ordinated with Si-MCM by Si{single bond}O{single bond}Ti covalent bond.