A nano-sized catalytic architecture composed of SiO/sub 2/-TiO/sub 2/ particle and carbon nanofibers

Amorphous SiO₂-TiO₂ particles have been grown on the carbon nanofibers successfully via hydrothermal synthesis. SEM and TEM images revealed that the produced particles were in nano size (under 10 nm) and appeared to be distributed uniformly along the curvature of the nanofibers. This work also reveals the possibility of obtaining crystalline particles from amorphous phase via recrystallization. The synthesized composite material could be a potential candidate for catalytic reactions which utilize Ti centre as an active site and which require the particle size of the catalyst in nanometer scale.