Deposition of a Titania Coating on Silica by Means of the Chemical Surface Coating

A chemically bound TiO 2 layer was created on silica by using a grafting method called “Chemical Surface Coating”. TiCl 4 and H 2 O were used as reagents in successive cycles. The surface reactions and surface species attached to the silica were characterized by elemental analysis as well as X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared, Raman, and UV-diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The TiO x layer constitutes of nanoparticles of anatase homogeneously spread over the surface. Calcination of the TiO 2 −SiO 2 materials leads to a particle size increase. An extensive pore size analysis was also undertaken to investigate the morphological changes as a function of the number of reaction cycles.