Sol-gel preparation of titanium dioxide nanoparticles in presence of a linear polysaccharide

Metal oxide fine particles are widely used in industrial applications as catalysts, pigments and so on. In this work, titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles were synthesised by controlled hydrolysis of titanium alkoxide in presence of a linear polysaccharide (1-3 linked ??-d-galactapyranose and 1, 4 linked 3, 6 anyhdro-??-l-galactopyranose). Spherical crystalline nanoparticles in the range of about 5-60-nm were obtained when the polysaccharide was used. The obtained nanoparticles were characterised by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and particle analysis distribution.