Titania polymorphs derived from crystalline titanium diboride

Abstract

Due to its specific bonds and intrinsic chemical stability and due to its capability of controllably releasing titanium species, TiB2 was chosen as a precursor for synthesizing phase tunable (rutile/anatase/brookite) titania with different morphologies (rutile nanocones, anatase bipyramids and brookite spherical nanoparticles) under hydrothermal treatment. The mechanisms of the chemical reactions involved and evolution of low-index crystal facets (001) and (100) of TiB2 during hydrothermal treatment were experimentally and theoretically studied in this work. It is demonstrated that a new synthetic pathway for titania polymorphs based on the intrinsic strong bonds of TiB2 is developed which could also be applicable to a number of other metal oxides using metal borides such as ZrB2, TaB, Nb3B4 as precursors.