Flores P., Dominguez J.M.
PETROLEUM INSTITUTE (IMP), MX
Keywords: Hierarchical pore structures
Recently, carbon nanotubes have been a subject of intensive research due to potential uses in the fields of adsorption, microelectronics, hydrogen storage and catalysis, among others. Other inorganic nanotubes have been synthesized too, i.e., TiO2, MoS2, V2O5, etc. The mean pore diameters of the inorganic systems vary between the interval 2 – 15 nm, which is the range of the mesopores; further diffusion through nanotube channels may be enhanced by the association of TiO2-nanotubes into homogeneous sub-micron size particles, which creates alternate pathways between those particles. Thus, in this work the synthesis conditions were searched for obtaining spherical particles of TiO2 nanotubes, which could present a bimodal pore size distribution, i.e. first peak at about 4 nm which may be attributed to the main nanotube channel and other peaks at about 8 – 10 nm which are the interparticle pores. The results obtained by SEM/TEM and N2-adsorption (BET) show how polymeric type molecules can promote the formation of spherical particles of TiO2 nanotubes, which display a secondary pore size distribution at about 8 – 10 nm. Catalysis and adsorption applications were sought
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 1, Technical Proceedings of the 2007 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show, Volume 1
Published: May 20, 2007
Pages: 340 - 343
Industry sector: Advanced Materials & Manufacturing
Topic: Advanced Materials for Engineering Applications
ISBN: 1-4200-6182-8