Sains Malaysiana 43(1)(2014): 137–144

 

Triethanolamine - Solution for Rapid Hydrothermal Synthesis of Titanate Nanotubes

(Trietanolamina – Penyelesaian untuk Sintesis Tiub Nano Titanat melalui Hidroterma Pantas)

 

 

M.N. AN'AMT¹, N.M. HUANG^*2, S. RADIMAN³, H.N. LIM⁴ & M.R. MUHAMAD⁵

 

¹Fakulti Agro Industri dan Sumber Asli, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Karung Berkunci 36, Pengkalan Chepa, 16100 Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia

 

²Low Dimensional Materials Research Centre, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science

University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

 

 

³School of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

 

⁴Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia

43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

 

⁵Chancellery Office, Multimedia University, Jalan Multimedia, 63100 Cyberjaya

Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

 

Received:  9 October 2013/Accepted: 10 March 2013

 

ABSTRACT

Titanate nanotubes were prepared by a rapid hydrothermal method in the presence of triethanolamine (TEA) using TiO₂ nanoparticles as a precursor. The addition of TEA significantly reduced the formation time of the titanate nanotubes from 24 to 6 h. The crystalline structure of the titanate nanotubes was revealed to be H₂Ti₂O₅ through the X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement. The morphology of the titanate nanotubes was confirmed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) while the surface area was characterized using Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis. The titanate nanotubes produced were several hundred nanometers in length and had an average outer diameter of ~ 11.5 nm, inner diameter of ~5.0 nm, interlayer spacing of 0.93 nm and surface area of >250 m₂/g. The photocatalytic activity of the titanate nanotubes was studied using methylene blue as a model dye; the titanate nanotubes showed better photocatalytic performance as compared to TiO₂ nanoparticles.

 

Keywords: Hydrothermal; photocatalyst; titanate nanotubes

 

ABSTRAK

Tiub nano titanat telah disediakan melalui kaedah hidroterma pantas dengan kehadiran trietanolamina (TEA) menggunakan partikel TiO₂ sebagai bahan pemula. Penambahan TEA telah mengurangkan masa pembentukan tiub nano titanat secara berkesan dari 24 jam ke 6 jam. Struktur hablur tiub nano titanat ialah H₂Ti₂O₅ berdasarkan pengukuran difraksi sinar-X (XRD). Morfologi tiub nano titanat telah dikenal pasti menggunakan mikroskop elektron transmisi (TEM) sementara luas permukaannya diperoleh daripada analisis luas permukaan Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET). Tiub nano titanat yang dihasilkan adalah beberapa ratus nanometer panjang serta mempunyai purata diameter luar ~ 11.5 nm, diameter dalam ~5.0 nm, ruang antara lapisan 0.93 nm dan luas permukaan >250 m₂/g. Aktiviti fotokatalitik tiub nano titanat telah dikaji menggunakan metilena biru sebagai pewarna modal; tiub nano titanat menunjukkan kuasa fotokalitik yang lebih baik berbanding dengan nanopartikel TiO₂.

 

Kata kunci: Fotokatalis; hidroterma; tiub nano titanat

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*Corresponding author; email: huangnayming@gmail.com