Characterization of titanium dioxide nanopowder synthesized by sol gel grinding method: Effect of TiO2 precursor concentration

Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanopowder was synthesized using a sol-gel milling method by using the metal oxide of titanium tetraisopropoxide as a precursor. The TiO₂ nanopowder obtained were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) for the crystallinity, thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) for the thermal decomposition, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) for the surface morphology, Raman spectroscopy for the phase content and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) for the element content of the sample. From the results, TiO₂ nanopowder with the smallest crystallite size of 12.84 nm can be obtained using this method. FESEM micrographs reveal that the surface morphology is strongly affected by the precursor concentration. In addition, the XRD and Raman spectrum results confirmed the TiO₂ nanopowder produced composed of only anatase phase supported with EDS results.