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TiO 2 nanoparticles synthesis for application in proton exchange membranes
Author(s) -
Mishra Preeti S.,
Solanki Jignasa N.,
Murthy Z. V. P.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
crystal research and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.377
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1521-4079
pISSN - 0232-1300
DOI - 10.1002/crat.201300179
Subject(s) - nanoparticle , dynamic light scattering , materials science , transmission electron microscopy , chemical engineering , titanium tetrachloride , solvent , nanocomposite , thermal stability , membrane , glass transition , methanol , nuclear chemistry , titanium , nanotechnology , chemistry , organic chemistry , polymer , biochemistry , engineering , metallurgy , composite material
In the present paper, suitable TiO 2 nanoparticles are successfully synthesized by sol‐gel method, in order to utilize the freshly prepared TiO 2 nanoparticles for proton exchange membrane (PEM) preparation. Titanium tetrachloride (TiCl 4 ) is used as precursor and ethanol as a solvent. The optimum and suitable TiO 2 nanoparticles were obtained by varying gelatinisation time (4–120 h), concentration of precursor (TiCl 4 ) in ethanol (2–15 vol%), and reaction temperature (15–35 °C). The morphology, size and purity of the nanoparticles are investigated by transmission electron microscope (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and X‐ray diffraction (XRD). Optimum results were found at 4 h of gelatinisation time, 10% precursor concentration and 25 °C temperature for preparation of TiO 2 nanoparticles. Thus prepared nanoparticles are found to be suitable for preparation of nanocomposite PEM, and consequently the prepared PEM indicates enhanced properties, such as, higher thermal stability (high glass transition temperature of 184.1 °C), excellent proton conductivity (0.0822 S cm −1 at room temperature) and low methanol permeability (1.11 × 10 −9 cm2 s −1 ).