Síntese de materiais compósitos TiO2-SiO2 via sol-gel para adsorção de água

Abstract

The presence of water can trigger serious damage in various branches of industry. The need for humidity control led to the development of a number of water adsorbent materials. Although widely used these materials have a number of limitations which makes desirable the development of materials with higher efficiency in the process. A new alternative may be the use of TiO2-SiO2 composite which has natural persistent super-hydrophilicity and then can be regenerated simply by exposure to ultraviolet light. The main features that have direct influence on its super-hydrophilic property and water adsorption are crystalline phase, specific surface area and pore size distribution, so the synthesis method should allow the control of such parameters. Thus, such composite has been obtained by combining the sol-gel process with the hydrothermal treatment and characterized using techniques such as adsorption-desorption isotherms of nitrogen and water vapor, X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy Fourier transform, among others. In agreement to it is characterization, the composite synthesis was successful. We may state that it was deposited a thin layer of SiO2 on the surface of the anatase TiO2 particles. This fact should allows the use of the TiO2 photoinduced properties without their commitment due to a thick SiO2 layer, and in addition should increase the super-hydrophilic character of the material by the presence of TiO2-SiO2 interfaces.