Synthesis and Characterization of Nano TiO2-SiO2: PVA Composite-A Novel Route

A novel, simple, less time-consuming and cost-effective sol-gel method has been developed to synthesize Nano Titania-Silica with poly vinyl alcohol composite relatively at low temperature in acidic pH. Titania sol was prepared by hydrolysis of titanium tetrachloride and was mixed with silicic acid and tetrahydrofuran mixture. The reaction was carried out under vigorous stirring for 6 hours and dried at room temperature with addition of PVA solution. The resulting powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), UV–Visible spectroscopy and thermal techniques. The grain size of the particles was calculated by X-ray diffraction, surface morphology and chemical composition was determined from scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive spectroscopy, metal oxide stretching was confirmed from FT-IR spectroscopy, band gap was calculated using UV-Visible spectroscopy and thermal stability of the prepared composite was determined by thermo gravimetric/differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA). Since TiO2 got agglomerated on the surface of SiO2, effective adsorptive sites increase which in turn increased the photo catalytic efficiency of the resulting composite.