Anatase TiO₂ Colloids Derived from the Peptization of TiO₂ Precipitates with CF₃COOH and their Photocatalytic Activities

The highly dispersed TiO2 sols composed of anatase crystallites (ca.5 nm) were prepared by peptization of amorphous precipitates with trifluoroactic acid (TFA) during the synthesis. The size and crystallinity of the particles were tuned by the subsequent hydrothermal treatment. The prepared TiO2 nanocrystals were characterized by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The TEM results indicated that the growth of the crystallites could be inhibited by the increasing addition of TFA and the average sizes of TiO2 nanocrystals were all ultrafine. The degradation of phenol over the nanocrystals after calcination at 500 °C was investigated. The photocatalytic results showed that the sample with a high addition of TFA obtained a better photocatalytic property than that of the commercial TiO2