The presence effect of H2O, benzyl alcohol and CNT percent on the properties of TiO2-CNT nanocomposite synthesized by in-situ sol-gel method

In this paper, nano-composite powder of TiO2 and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was synthesized by in-situ sol-gel method. The effect of processing parameters of benzyl alcohol, H2O and CNT content (1 and 10 wt.%) on the prepared powder morphology was investigated. The samples were characterized via field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Firstly, the influence of calcination stage on the powders structure was evaluated. XRD results showed amorphous structures for the composite powders before calcination and the dominant structure of anatase TiO2 after calcination treatment. FESEM results showed a non-uniform and agglomerated morphology without benzyl alcohol. Furthermore, addition of Tetrabutyl-orthotitanate solution to the initial solution containing H2O as the hydrolysis agent resulted in finer powder microstructure with uniform coating of TiO2 on CNTs due to slower hydrolysis reaction. The effect of CNTs on the morphology depends on percent of CNTs. Also, composite powder with higher particle size was formed with the decrease of CNT content from 10 to 1 percent which is attributed to the decreased and less accessible surface area to TiO2 particles formation.