| With increasing energy costs, government regulations, and an expanding population, alternative low-cost methods for the treatment of waste air and water have shown renewed interest. The utilization of solar energy to promote catalytic reactions, including photodegradation of pollutants, is an attractive and well-established field of research. Titanium dioxide nanoparticles are the most widely employed catalyst material in photocatalytic studies. Owing to its high surface area and electronic structure, the anatase phase of TiO 2 is an excellent photocatalyst. However, a detailed understanding of the physical, chemical, and electronic properties of TiO2 that influence the photocatalytic reaction rate does not exist. One goal of this work is the determination of how the degradation rate over TiO2 nanoparticle is influenced by the particle size. To meet this goal, detailed analysis of the particles was carried out using standard catalytic techniques combined with infrared spectroscopy to probe the decomposition of an organic probe molecule, formic acid. It was shown using infrared spectroscopy that the size of the particle does influence the rate of photodegradation. However for particles as small as five nanometers, the increased rate could be described by accounting for the increased surface area of the particles. Novel synthesis conditions for the synthesis of high purity particles is required to develop a better understanding of how the size can influence the particle's catalytic properties.; Combustion synthesis serves as an attractive method for the synthesis of high purity TiO2 nanoparticles. The high temperatures present in a combustion flame promotes the decomposition of organometallic precursors and subsequent synthesis of metal oxide nanoparticles. Numerous synthesis conditions can influence the product powder. This research investigated some of these conditions for the synthesis of TiO2 nanoparticles. Additionally the thermal properties of TiO2 nanoparticles was investigated. It is known that the more active phase for photocatalysis, anatase, is metastable at extremely small particle sizes (< 15 nm). A premixed ethylene combustion flame was employed in conjunction with a novel rapid-insertion sampler. This allowed for the extraction of high purity anatase particles before sintering and phase transformation to the less photoactive rutile phase could occur. The thermal properties of these particles were then investigated as part of an effort to investigate the catalytic properties of the flame synthesized particles. Results show that high-purity phase-pure anatase particles in the nanometer size range could be synthesized in a combustion flame. These particles were shown to be thermally stable to 773 K before sintering and phase transformation to rutile occurred. |
