Synthesis of vacancy-rich titania particles suitable for the additive manufacturing of ceramics

In the last decades, titania (or TiO 2 ) particles played a crucial role in the development of photo-catalysis and better environmentally-friendly energy-harvesting techniques. In this work, we engineer a new generation of TiO 2 particles rich in oxygen vacancies using a modified sol–gel synthesis....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2022-09, Vol.12 (1), p.15441-15441, Article 15441
Main Authors: Benavides-Guerrero, Jaime A., Gerlein, Luis Felipe, Trudeau, Charles, Banerjee, Debika, Guo, Xiaohang, Cloutier, Sylvain G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/638
639/638/298
Additive manufacturing
Catalysis
Ceramics
Crystallization
Energy
High temperature
Humanities and Social Sciences
Lasers
Light effects
multidisciplinary
Oxygen
Raman spectroscopy
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Titanium dioxide
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In the last decades, titania (or TiO 2 ) particles played a crucial role in the development of photo-catalysis and better environmentally-friendly energy-harvesting techniques. In this work, we engineer a new generation of TiO 2 particles rich in oxygen vacancies using a modified sol–gel synthesis. By design, these vacancy-rich particles efficiently absorb visible light to allow carefully-controlled light-induced conversion to the anatase or rutile crystalline phases. FTIR and micro-Raman spectroscopy reveal the formation of oxygen vacancies during conversion and explain this unique laser-assisted crystallization mechanism. We achieve low-energy laser-assisted crystallization in ambient environment using a modified filament 3D printer equipped with a low-power laser printhead. Since the established high-temperature treatment necessary to convert to crystalline TiO 2 is ill-suited to additive manufacturing platforms, this work removes a major fundamental hurdle and opens whole new vistas of possibilities towards the additive manufacturing of ceramics, including carefully-engineered crystalline TiO 2 substrates with potential applications for new and better photo-catalysis, fuel cells and energy-harvesting technologies.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-022-19824-y