TY - JOUR A1 - Pellegrino, F. A1 - Pellutiè, L. A1 - Sordello, F. A1 - Minero, C. A1 - Ortel, Erik A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan A1 - Maurino, V. T1 - Influence of agglomeration and aggregation on the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 nanoparticles JF - Applied Catalysis B: Environmental N2 - Particle aggregation and agglomeration influence the optical properties of materials and therefore theirability to absorb and scatter the incoming radiation, also affecting their photocatalytic activity. Wehave studied the correlation between aggregation and photocatalytic activity for titanium dioxide bymeans of experimental measurements of extinction and photocatalytic activity and calculations of theiroptical properties (extinction, absorption and scattering cross-sections). This approach can be adoptedto quantitatively assess the quantum yields of the heterogeneous photocatalytic systems. The study wasperformed on TiO2PC105 Cristal ACTiVTM, made of aggregated (and agglomerated) primary particles of anatase. The size of the aggregates has been reduced with ultra-sonication. Aqueous suspensions of the obtained materials were characterized by measuring the optical properties (UV–vis extinction), the sizing properties (DLS) and the photocatalytic activity (degradation of phenol under standard con-ditions). The extinction and absorption spectra of the suspensions were derived from the calculatedcoefficients, considering also the size distributions measured with DLS, and revealed that light absorptionis maximized when particle aggregation and agglomeration are avoided, while diffusion of the incomingradiation dominates when large aggregates and agglomerates are present. The present paper represents a valuable approach to the accurate and reproducible measurement of the photocatalytic activity ofTiO2nanoparticles suspensions, thus allowing a more reliable comparison of the properties of different materials. KW - Titanium dioxide KW - Nanoparticles KW - Agglomeration/aggregation KW - Photocatalysis KW - Quantum yield PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apcatb.2017.05.046 SN - 0926-3373 SN - 1873-3883 VL - 216 SP - 80 EP - 87 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-40477 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lavric, V. A1 - Isopescu, R. A1 - Maurino, V. A1 - Pellegrino, F. A1 - Pellutiè, L. A1 - Ortel, Erik A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan T1 - A new model for nano-TiO2 crystal birth and growth in hydrothermal treatment using an oriented attachment approach JF - Crystal Growth & Design N2 - The synthesis of TiO2 was studied in an original hydrothermal process that uses triethanolamine titanium complex Ti(TeoaH)2 as a Ti precursor and triethanolamine (TeoaH3) as a shape controller to obtain bipyramidal anatase nanoparticles. Backed-up by experimental evidence, i.e., time profiles for Ti(IV) species concentrations together with crystal shape and particle size distributions measured by dynamic light scattering and electron microscopy, a mathematical model was built. The model includes chemical reactions responsible for TiO2 generation in solution and the subsequent anatase nucleation and crystal growth. The oriented attachment mechanism was adopted to explain the build-up of crystals with equilibrium anatase structure (Wulff structure) and time-varying shape factor. This complex mathematical model was solved writing and validating an in-house software using the Matlab (Natick, MA, USA) environment. The process was simulated for a batch time of 50 h, and the results, in terms of main species concentration and crystal size distributions, are in rather good agreement with the experimental measurements. KW - Nanoparticles KW - TiO2 KW - SEM/EDX KW - Modelling KW - Crystal growth PY - 2017 UR - http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.cgd.7b00302 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.cgd.7b00302 SN - 1528-7483 SN - 1528-7505 VL - 17 IS - 11 SP - 5640 EP - 5651 PB - ACS Publications AN - OPUS4-42724 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rades, Steffi A1 - Ortel, Erik A1 - Wirth, Thomas A1 - Holzweber, Markus A1 - Pellegrino, F. A1 - Martra, G. A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan T1 - Analysis of fluorine traces in TiO2 nanoplatelets by SEM/EDX, AES and TOF-SIMS JF - Microscopy and Microanalysis N2 - Hydrothermal synthesis of anatase TiO2 nanosheets with a high fraction of exposed {001} facets and related high photocatalytic activity - as an alternative to bipyramidal anatase TiO2 nanoparticles mainly exposing the {101} facets. The scope of the material preparation work is the thermal reduction of residual fluorides from HF (capping agent) induced during the synthesis of TiO2 nanosheets by calcination at 873K. The analytical task consists of detection and localization of fluorine present at the surface and/or in the bulk of TiO2 nanosheets before and after calcination by SEM/EDX, Auger electron spectroscopy and ToF-SIMS. KW - Fluorine KW - SEM/EDX KW - TiO2 nanoplatelets KW - Auger electron spectroscopy KW - TOF-SIMS PY - 2017 UR - https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/microscopy-and-microanalysis/article/analysis-of-fluorine-traces-in-tio2-nanoplatelets-by-semedx-aes-and-tofsims/91EA2C0666B7927FCA57D2AD114910F6 DO - https://doi.org/10.1017/S1431927617010200 SN - 1435-8115 SN - 1431-9276 VL - 23 IS - S1 (July) SP - 1908 EP - 1909 PB - Cambridge University Press CY - New York, NY, U.S.A. AN - OPUS4-42455 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -