Acessibilidade / Reportar erro

Crystallization of Anatase TiO2 in Niobium Potassium Phosphate Glasses

Abstract

In this work, the glass forming ability was studied in potassium phosphate glasses with increasing amounts of TiO2 in order to obtain a glass-ceramic with photocatalytic properties. The first studied series has been the binary system (100-x) KPO3-xTiO2. Homogeneous and transparent glasses could be obtained with x varying from 10 to 30 mole%. Since the photocatalytic anatase phase could not be precipitated in this system, the ternary system KPO3-TiO2-Nb2O5 was investigated in order to incorporate higher TiO2 contents without spontaneous crystallization under cooling. Thermal properties of all glass samples were investigated by DSC and allowed identifying an increase of glass transition temperatures with increasing TiO2. For all compositions, exothermic events related with crystallization were also observed and suitable heat-treatments resulted in specific crystalline phases identified by X-ray diffraction. Selective precipitation of the anatase titanium oxide was successfully obtained from the glass compostion 35KPO3-25Nb2O5-40TiO2 (KN25T40) after heat treatment at 720°C for 2 h, suggesting the possibility of obtaining a glass-ceramic for photocatalytic applications. Structural investigations by Raman were also performed on glasses and glass-ceramics and allowed to point out the glass intermediary behavior of TiO2 in the phosphate vitreous network where TiO4 and TiO6 octahedra are inserted inside the phosphate network with TiO6 clusters identified at higher TiO2 contents. Raman analysis also identified anatase TiO2 in the KN25T40 glass-ceramic.

Keywords:
glass; phosphate; titanium oxide; anatase


1. Introduction

Titanium dioxide is considered one of the most important semiconductor oxide with interesting chemical, electrical and optical properties. Since its discovery as photocatalytic agent observed by Fujishima and Honda in 1972, research on TiO2 applications has attracting considerable interest in several fields of science due to its excellent properties, including chemical stability, photostability and appropriate electronic band structure11 Ye M, Vennerberg D, Lin C, Lin Z. Nanostructured TiO2 architectures for environmental and energy applications. Journal of Nanoscience Letters. 2012;2:1-35.,22 Fujishima A, Honda K. Electrochemical photolysis of water at a semiconductor electrode. Nature. 1972;238(5358):37-38..

Titanium dioxide thin films have been formed on glass, steel and other surfaces by a wide range of techniques, especially by sol-gel and chemical vapour deposition33 Gupta SM, Tripathi M. A review of TiO2 nanoparticles Chinese Science Bulletin. 2011;56:1639-1657.,44 Page K, Palgrave RG, Parkin IP, Wilson M, Savin SLP, Chadwick AV. Titania and silver-titania composite films on glass-potent antimicrobial coatings. Journal of Materials Chemistry. 2007;17(1):95-104.. However, the properties of these materials produced by deposition or coating techniques can change over time by surface damage and thus a recoating process can be necessary. On the other hand, TiO2 crystallites precipitated in the glass matrix can exhibit stable physical and chemical properties even with surface polishing55 Yazawa T, Machida F, Oki K, Mineshige A, Kobune M. Novel porous TiO2 glass-ceramics with highly photocatalytic ability. Ceramics International. 2009;35(4):1693-1697..

There are three allotropic forms of TiO2: anatase (tetragonal), brookite (orthorhombic) and rutile (tetragonal) among which rutile is the most thermodynamically stable phase for bulk TiO2 under most conditions. However, the rutile activity as a photocatalytic compound is generally poor. Anatase TiO2 is considered to be the active photocatalytic component based on charge carrier dynamics, chemical properties and the activity of photocatalytic degradation of organic compounds11 Ye M, Vennerberg D, Lin C, Lin Z. Nanostructured TiO2 architectures for environmental and energy applications. Journal of Nanoscience Letters. 2012;2:1-35.,33 Gupta SM, Tripathi M. A review of TiO2 nanoparticles Chinese Science Bulletin. 2011;56:1639-1657..

When a glass-ceramic is obtained by heat-treatment of the mother glass, both the disordered glass regions and ordered crystalline regions are presents. The final material can exhibit not only the benefits of the glass material but also the unique physical properties originated from the crystalline phase. However, only a few works reported phosphate glass-ceramics containing anatase TiO2 in crystal volume fraction by heat treatment and this lack is in part attributed to the difficulty of promoting controlled and selective crystallization of anatase in phosphate-based glasses with high TiO2 contents since titania is known to act as a nucleating agent of other crystalline phases66 Masai H, Fujiwara T, Mori H, Komatsu T. Fabrication of TiO2 nanocrystallized glass. Applied Physics Letters. 2007;90(8):081907..

Selective crystallization of the glass CaO-Bi2O3-B2O3-Al2O3-TiO2 containing 20% TiO2 under heat-treatment using an infrared halogen lamp is reported but allowed only precipitation of the rutile phase77 Masai H, Kanamori E, Takahashi Y, Fujiwara T. Surface crystallization of CaO-Bi2O3-B2O3-Al2O3-TiO2 glass using IR furnace. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids. 2010;356(52-54):2977-2979.. Recently, selective crystallization of TiO2 by controlled heat-treatment and SiO2 addition in the glass 14TiO2-23ZnO-45B2O3-18Al2O3 was also reported88 Yoshida K, Masai H, Takahashi Y, Ihara R, Fujiwara T. Selective crystallization of anatase and rutile by control of heat-treatment conditions and SiO2 addition in TiO2-crystallized glass. Journal of the Ceramic Society of Japan. 2013;121(1420):999-1003. but XRD results indicate that TiO2 was not the unique crystalline phase after heat treatment and Al4B2O9 was precipitated as a subcrystalline phase.

In this work, TiO2-containing glass compositions were investigated for preferential anatase crystallization. First, the binary system (100-x)KPO3-xTiO2 was investigated and glass samples were obtained from x=10 to x=30. These glasses were characterized by DSC and Raman spectroscopy and specific heat-treatments were performed but anatase could not be precipitated under heat-treatments. Adding Nb2O5 to this binary system allowed incorporating higher TiO2 contents (40%) and anatase TiO2 could be successfully precipitated in the mother glass.

2. Experimental Part

Glass samples were synthesized from the precursors: titanium dioxide 99,9% (TiO2) from Vetec, potassium phosphate monobasic 99,9% (KH2PO4) from Synth and niobium oxide 99,8% (Nb2O5) from Sigma-Aldrich by conventional melt-quenching: The starting powders were weighted using an analytical balance and grinded in an agate mortar. The batches were melted for 2 hours in a platinum crucible between 1100 and 1450°C depending on the TiO2 content. Finally, the melts were quenched in a steel mold preheated 20°C below the glass transition temperature and kept at this temperature for 8 hours before slow cooling inside the furnace.First, samples in the binary system (100-x) KPO3-xTiO2 with x varying from 10 to 30 (mole%) were prepared using the methodology described above. In a second step, a ternary system was investigated with the introduction of niobium oxide as glass intermediary in order to increase the TiO2 content in the final glass using the same methodology. Molar compositions, melting temperature and visual aspect of the glass samples are presented in Table 1. DSC curves were performed on bulk glass samples of 30 mg in Pt/Rh covered crucibles between 200ºC and 1100ºC at 10ºC/min under N2 atmosphere. These thermal analyzes were obtained using a DSC/TG calorimeter STA 449 F3 Jupiter from Netzsch. X-ray diffraction measurements were performed on powder samples using a Rigaku ultima IV diffractometer working at 40KV and 30mA between 10º and 70º in continuous mode of 0,02º/s. The crystalline phases were identified according to X-ray powder diffraction patterns (PDF file)99 International Centre for Diffraction Data-Joint Committee of Powder Diffraction Standards. Powder diffraction file (PDF). Newton Square: International Centre for Diffraction Data-Joint Committee of Powder Diffraction Standards; 2000.. Finally, Raman spectra were collected on bulk glass samples between 100cm-1 and 1200cm-1 using a LabRam Micro-Raman from Horiba Jobin-Yvon operating at 632,8 nm with a He-Ne laser.

Table 1
Molar compositions, characteristic temperatures and visual aspect of the glass samples.

3. Results

Transparent and homogeneous samples were obtained in the binary system (100-x)KPO3 - xTiO2 with x varying from 10 to 30 mole% by melt-quenching with an increasing brownish color for higher TiO2 contents. As expected, an increase of the melt viscosity with increasing TiO2 content was observed during synthesis and higher melting temperatures were used for a suitable casting of the melt. However, partial or total crystallization of the samples was observed for TiO2 contents above 30 mole% under these experimental conditions. After X-ray diffraction analysis of the crystalline phases obtained by heat-treatment in these glasses, Nb2O5 was added and samples containing 40 mole% of TiO2 could be prepared. In fact, several compositions were tested by varying the KPO3:Nb2O5 ratio (50:10; 40:20; 35:25; 30:30) with constant TiO2 content of 40%. Compositions 50KPO3-10Nb2O5-40TiO2 and 30KPO3-30Nb2O5-40TiO2 crystallized under quenching while compositions 40KPO3-20Nb2O5-40TiO2 and 35KPO3-25Nb2O5-40TiO2 sucessfully vitrified. Table 1 resumes all investigated compositions, required melting temperatures and the visual aspect of the final samples. DSC curves for all bulk glass samples are presented in Figure 1 and Table 2 resumes the characteristic temperatures Tg, Tx and Tf where Tg is the glass transition temperature, Tx the onset of crystallization and Tf the melting temperature as well as the thermal stability parameter Tx-Tg. These thermal data point out that the addition of TiO2 results in a significant increase in Tg values from 330°C to 510°C in the binary system KPO3-TiO2 with an increase of the thermal stability parameter from 10% to 20% and further decrease for higher contents. Nb2O5 incorporation also results in a clear increase of Tg identified around 650°C for 20 and 25 mole% of niobium oxide. Crystallization events were observed for all samples as well as melting for glasses KT10 and KT30 at the same temperature. Heat-treatments were applied near the crystallization temperatures in order to identify the crystallization events observed by DSC and check the ability of these glass compositions to precipitate titanium dioxide crystalline phases and especially anatase, which is known for its efficient photocatalytic properties. The crystalline phase identifications performed by X-ray diffraction are summarized in Figure 2 and Figure 3 as well as Table 2. Sample KT10 only exhibited precipitation of long-chains potassium metaphosphate KPO3 whereas sample KT20 suffered crystallization of potassium pyrophosphate K4P2O7 and cyclic potassium metaphosphate K3P3O9. For sample KT30, phases KPO3 and KTiOPO4 were detected. Finally, for samples modified with niobium oxide, anatase TiO2 could be identified as the first precipitated phase in sample KN25T40 heat-treated below the first crystallization peak whereas heat-treatments at higher temperatures induce crystallization of the mother glass with formation of K2TiNb2P2O13. For the other niobium titanium phosphate glass KN20T40, crystalline phases K2TiNb2P2O13, K3Nb6P4O26 and rutile TiO2 were identified.

Table 2
Characteristic temperatures, thermal stability and crystalline phases identified in heat-treated glass samples.

Figure 1
DSC curves of glass samples in the binary system KPO3-TiO2 (10-30% TiO2) and ternary KPO3-Nb2O5- TiO2 (40% TiO2).

Figure 2
X-ray diffraction patterns of heat-treated glasses in the binary system KPO3-TiO2.

Figure 3
X-ray diffraction patterns of heat-treated glasses in the ternary system KPO3-Nb2O5-TiO2.

Raman spectra of the glass samples and crystalline references KPO3, TiO2 and Nb2O5 in the frequency region between 100 and 1500 cm−1 were recorded to probe the structural evolution with TiO2 addition and to compare the Raman features of precursor glass and glass-ceramic KN25T40 (Figure 4). In the binary system KPO3-TiO2, the first clear change in Raman spectra is the progressive vanishing of vibrational bands centered at 1150cm-1 and 680cm-1 and commonly attributed to symmetric stretching modes of P-O bonds in P-O-P linkages and Q22 Fujishima A, Honda K. Electrochemical photolysis of water at a semiconductor electrode. Nature. 1972;238(5358):37-38. tetrahedra in metaphosphate compounds1010 Cardinal T, Fargin E, Flem E, Couzi M. Raman Scattering and XAFS Study of Optically Nonlinear Glasses of the TiO2-NaPO3-Na2B4O7 System. Journal of Solid State Chemistry. 1995;120(1):151-156.-1111 Kaur M, Singh A, Thakur V, Singh L. Effect of TiO2 substitution on optical and structural aspects of phosphate glasses. Journal of Molecular Structure. 2015;1089:95-101.. On the other hand, TiO2 addition results in new Raman signals centered around 1250cm-1 and 520cm-1 which shifts to lower wavenumbers. These signals are reported to be due to P=O terminal bonds in PO4 tetrahedra wherein the other three oxygens are linked to another cation (P-O-X where X=P or Ti) and vibrational modes of distorted TiO6 respectively1010 Cardinal T, Fargin E, Flem E, Couzi M. Raman Scattering and XAFS Study of Optically Nonlinear Glasses of the TiO2-NaPO3-Na2B4O7 System. Journal of Solid State Chemistry. 1995;120(1):151-156.. Other Raman features appear with TiO2 addition at 290cm-1, 735cm-1, 863cm-1, 935cm-1 and 977cm-1 and were attributed to bending modes of TiO6 octahedra1212 Farrow LA, Vogel EM. Raman spectra of phosphate and silicate glasses doped with the cations Ti, Nb and Bi. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids. 1992;143:59-64., stretching modes of TiO61010 Cardinal T, Fargin E, Flem E, Couzi M. Raman Scattering and XAFS Study of Optically Nonlinear Glasses of the TiO2-NaPO3-Na2B4O7 System. Journal of Solid State Chemistry. 1995;120(1):151-156.,1313 Dias AG, Skakle JMS, Gibson IR, Lopes MA, Santos JD. In situ thermal and structural characterization of bioactive calcium phosphate glass ceramics containing TiO2 and MgO oxides: High temperature - XRD studies. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids. 2005;351(10-11):810-817., stretching modes of TiO41414 Sakka S, Miyaji F, Fukumi K. Structure of binary K2O-TiO2 and Cs2O-TiO2 glasses. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids. 1989;112(1-3):64-68.-1515 Zheng K, Liao J, Wang X, Zhang Z. Raman spectroscopic study of the structural properties of CaO-MgO-SiO2-TiO2 slags. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids. 2013;376:209-215., Ti-O stretchings of the axial Ti-O bond in TiO5 pyramidal units1010 Cardinal T, Fargin E, Flem E, Couzi M. Raman Scattering and XAFS Study of Optically Nonlinear Glasses of the TiO2-NaPO3-Na2B4O7 System. Journal of Solid State Chemistry. 1995;120(1):151-156.,1616 Magyari K, Stefan R, Vulpoi A, Baia L. Bioactivity evolution of calcium-free borophosphate glass with addition of titanium dioxide. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids. 2015;410:112-117.-1717 Tiwari B, Pandey M, Sudarsan V, Deb SK, Kothiyal GP. Study of structural modification of sodium aluminophosphate glasses with TiO2 addition through Raman and NMR spectroscopy. Physica B: Condensed Matter. 2009;404(1):47-51. and PO4 orthophosphate units respectively1818 Morikawa H, Lee S, Kasuga T, Brauer DS. Effects of magnesium for calcium substitution in P2O5-CaO-TiO2 glasses. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids. 2013;380:53-59.. Precursor glass composition KN25T40 is dominated by broad Raman bands centered around 200 cm-1, 650 cm-1 and 825 cm-1 as for crystalline Nb2O5 whereas the glass-ceramic exhibits sharper Raman signals at 240 cm-1 and 640 cm-1 as for crystalline anatase TiO2.

Figure 4
Raman spectra of glasses, glass-ceramic KN25T40 and crystalline references TiO2, Nb2O5 and KPO3.

4. Discussion

Since the main objective of this work was the obtaining of glass-ceramics containing anatase crystallites for photocatalytic applications, the glass forming ability of the binary system KPO3-TiO2 was investigated with increasing amounts of TiO2. Homogeneous glass samples were obtained by melt-quenching from TiO2 contents ranging from 10 to 30 mole% whereas higher contents lead to crystallized samples under these experimental conditions. As presented in Table 1, these glasses also exhibit an increasing brownish color attributed to partial titanium reduction from Ti4+ to Ti3+. It is suggested that the increasing melting temperatures can induce oxygen loss of the melt and titanium reduction as described for non-stochiometric crystalline titanium oxides. The strong absorption in the visible is due to both d-d internal electronic transition of Ti3+ ( d11 Ye M, Vennerberg D, Lin C, Lin Z. Nanostructured TiO2 architectures for environmental and energy applications. Journal of Nanoscience Letters. 2012;2:1-35. electronic configuration) and electronic polaron transitions between reduced Ti3+ and oxidized Ti4+ species1919 El Batal FH, Ibrahim S, Marzouk MA. UV-visible, infrared absorption spectra of undoped and TiO2-doped lead phosphate glasses and the effect of gamma irradiation. Radiation Effects and Defects in Solids. 2012;167(4):256-267.-2020 Ramachandra Rao MV, Gandhi Y, Srinivasa Rao L, Sahayabaskaran G, Veeraiah N. Electrical and spectroscopic properties of LiF-Bi2O3-P2O5:TiO2 glass system. Materials Chemistry and Physics. 2011;126(1-2):58-68.. These increasing melting temperatures and increasing viscosity of the resulting melt observed during synthesis bring a first indication of the effective insertion of titanium ions inside the phosphate chains and higher network connectivity and field strength. A detailed structural description can be extracted from a general analysis of thermal results, Raman data and crystalline phase identification obtained by X-ray diffraction. Since the results obtained from each technique point out the same structural evolution, these data are discussed simultaneously. The first important point is the clear increase of glass transition temperatures from 330ºC to 510ºC for TiO2 contents ranging from 10 to 30 mole%. This behavior is commonly related with an increase in the glass network connectivity as well as in the network bond strength as reported in many structural studies concerning transition metal oxide-containing phosphate glasses. In fact, these metallic oxides usually exhibit strong metal-oxygen bonds and high coordination number. In addition, their intermediary behavior in phosphate network usually allow their partial or complete insertion inside the phosphate covalent chains, resulting in cross-linking bonds between these chains. In our case, the Tg increase with composition can be attributed to a progressive insertion of titanium oxide units such as TiO4 and/or TiO6 between PO4 tetrahedra. These species were identified by the Raman bands observed at 863cm-1 and 520cm-1 respectively. The former Raman band is often attributed to Nb-O-P linkages2121 Sene FF, Martinelli JR, Gomes L. Synthesis and characterization of niobium phosphate glasses containing barium and potassium. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids. 2004;348:30-37. but is better attributed to TiO4 units in these glasses since niobium free samples prepared in the binary system KPO3-TiO2 also exhibit this signal. The potassium metaphosphate network depolymerisation is also supported by the progressive vanishing of Raman bands at 680cm-1 and 1150cm-1 related with P-O-P and P-O terminal bonds in Q2 tetrahedra. Another important result supporting this structural evolution is the preferential precipitation of potassium metaphosphate KPO3 in sample KT10 at 475ºC which melts at 780ºC whereas sample KT20 exhibits crystallization of potassium pyrophosphate K4P2O7 and cyclic metaphosphate K3P3O9. The other crystallization event observed for KT10 can be related with precipitation of titanium oxide with high melting temperature not observed below 1000ºC. These titanium oxide polyhedra can increase the network connectivity by cross-linked Ti-O-P bonds. In fact, the appearance of the Raman band around 1250cm-1 and attributed to P=O bonds means that all other P-O linkages in these PO4 tetrahedra are bridging bonds like P-O-Ti bonds resulting in this non-resonant P=O species. Based on the well-known glass intermediary behavior of Nb2O5 in phosphate glasses, it is also suggested that niobium oxide incorporation promotes bridging Nb-O-P bonds and higher glass network connectivity, in agreement with higher Tg temperatures for these glasses. In addition, The Raman band centered at 863cm-1 and attributed to TiO4 units enhances from 10% to 20% of TiO2 but further decreases for 30% but a new band at 935cm-1 clearly appears for KT30. Since this Raman signal is known to be due to the axial Ti-O bond in pyramidal TiO5 units, it can be suggested that titanium ions are preferentially four-fold and six-fold coordinated for lower TiO2 contents whereas TiO6 and TiO5 units dominate for higher titanium oxide concentrations. The precipitation of titanium-containing crystalline phases could not be detected by X-ray diffraction of the heat-treated samples KT10 and KT20 but the thermal behavior of sample KT30 also gives important structural clues explaining the limited glass forming ability of this binary system. The Raman spectrum of this sample is dominated by signals centered at 290, 520, 935 and 1250cm-1 related with TiO6, TiO5 and PO4 units whereas the DSC curve exhibits two crystallization peaks and a melting event. Heat-treatment of this sample resulted in precipitation of crystalline phases KPO3 and KTiOPO4. Since the Tg temperature of this glass is higher than compositions KT10 and KT20, it appears that titanium oxide polyhedra effectively modified the phosphate network through P-O-Ti bonds but the thermal treatment induces a spontaneous phase separation of a potassium metaphosphate structure and potassium titanium orthophosphate constituted of TiO6 octahedra and orthophosphate PO43- ions. The KPO3 formation has been detected by X-ray diffraction as well as melting event observed at 770ºC. This phase separation tendency for these higher TiO2 contents is in agreement with the spontaneous crystallization of melts with higher TiO2 contents by melt-quenching.

Anyway, these binary compositions were not able to precipitate TiO2 anatase by heat-treatment and niobium oxide Nb2O5 was added in order to investigate the glass forming ability of compositions with 40 mole% of TiO2. Samples with 10% and 30% of Nb2O5 crystallized under quenching while compositions with 20% and 25% successfully vitrified (KN20T40 and KN25T40). For sample KN20T40, only one crystallization peak was observed by DSC with Tx at 730ºC and heat-treatments were performed at 750ºC and 1050ºC in order to identify the first crystalline phase as well as other possible precipitations not detected by thermal analysis. The first heat-treatment resulted in a diffraction pattern that could not be identified using the ICSD database whereas heat-treatment at higher temperatures allowed characterizing the potassium niobium phosphate K3Nb6P4O26, potassium niobium titanium phosphate K2TiNb2P2O13 and rutile TiO2. For this composition, these results clearly point out that these crystalline phase precipitation are not related with distinct crystallization peaks and can hardly be selectively precipitated by suitable heat-treatments. The chemical composition of these phases suggests crystallization of the mother glass with rutile TiO2. In any case, anatase TiO2 could not be detected for this composition. On the other hand, sample KN25T40 exhibits three distinct exothermic events starting at 720ºC, 790ºC and 870ºC attributed to precipitation of several crystalline phases in the glass. For this reason, heat-treatments were performed at 720ºC, 780ºC and 880ºC and the resulting samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction. As shown in Figure 3 and Table 2, these results allowed attributing the first peak to precipitation of anatase while the second exothermic event is related with crystallization of K2TiNb2P2O13. A stoichiometric analysis of the starting glass composition (35KPO3-25Nb2O5-40TiO2 corresponding to K7Ti8Nb10P7O62 average formula) and final crystalline phases TiO2 and K2TiNb2P2O13 suggest that approximately half of the starting titanium ions is precipitated as anatase resulting in a final composition of the residual glass next to K7Ti4Nb10P7O54 which is close to the composition of the crystalline phase K2TiNb2P2O13. For this composition, it has been shown that anatase can be preferentially precipitated as the first crystalline phase in these glasses resulting in a glass-ceramic containing only anatase crystallites. The Raman data presented in Figure 4 also support this assumption. The Raman spectrum of the precursor glass KN25T40 exhibits intense signals around 230cm-1, 750cm-1 and 850cm-1 also observed for crystalline Nb2O5 and attributed to bending and stretching modes of NbO6 octahedra. The higher polarizability of Nb-O bonds when compared to P-O and Ti-O bonds explains why the former bonds dominate the spectrum when compared to the latter one. On the other hand, The Raman spectrum of the glass-ceramic KN25T40 obtained from heat-treatment of the starting glass at 720ºC shows a very distinct signal with dominant narrow bands centered at 150cm-1 and 650cm-1 characteristic of bending and stretching modes of the crystalline phase anatase.

5. Conclusion

Homogeneous and transparent titanophosphate glasses were obtained in the binary KPO3-TiO2 and ternary KPO3-TiO2-Nb2O5 systems by the melt-quenching method. 30 mole% of TiO2 was successfully incorporated without devitrification in the binary system and the structural changes were monitored by DSC, Raman and X-ray diffraction of the heat-treated glasses. Titanium oxide polyhedra are inserted inside the phosphate chains and increase the network connectivity. However, for higher TiO2 contents, a phase separation has been identified without precipitation of the desired anatase TiO2 phase. Addition of Nb2O5 as an intermediary compound led to important structural changes, increasing the stability against devitrification and homogeneous glasses containing 40% TiO2 could be obtained. The glass composition 35KPO3-25Nb2O5-40TiO2 exhibits a preferential precipitation of anatase in the mother glass resulting in glass-ceramics with a potential photocatalytic activity.

6. Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank funding agencies CAPES, CNPq, FAPEMIG and FINEP for financial support.

7. References

  • 1
    Ye M, Vennerberg D, Lin C, Lin Z. Nanostructured TiO2 architectures for environmental and energy applications. Journal of Nanoscience Letters 2012;2:1-35.
  • 2
    Fujishima A, Honda K. Electrochemical photolysis of water at a semiconductor electrode. Nature 1972;238(5358):37-38.
  • 3
    Gupta SM, Tripathi M. A review of TiO2 nanoparticles Chinese Science Bulletin 2011;56:1639-1657.
  • 4
    Page K, Palgrave RG, Parkin IP, Wilson M, Savin SLP, Chadwick AV. Titania and silver-titania composite films on glass-potent antimicrobial coatings. Journal of Materials Chemistry 2007;17(1):95-104.
  • 5
    Yazawa T, Machida F, Oki K, Mineshige A, Kobune M. Novel porous TiO2 glass-ceramics with highly photocatalytic ability. Ceramics International 2009;35(4):1693-1697.
  • 6
    Masai H, Fujiwara T, Mori H, Komatsu T. Fabrication of TiO2 nanocrystallized glass. Applied Physics Letters 2007;90(8):081907.
  • 7
    Masai H, Kanamori E, Takahashi Y, Fujiwara T. Surface crystallization of CaO-Bi2O3-B2O3-Al2O3-TiO2 glass using IR furnace. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 2010;356(52-54):2977-2979.
  • 8
    Yoshida K, Masai H, Takahashi Y, Ihara R, Fujiwara T. Selective crystallization of anatase and rutile by control of heat-treatment conditions and SiO2 addition in TiO2-crystallized glass. Journal of the Ceramic Society of Japan 2013;121(1420):999-1003.
  • 9
    International Centre for Diffraction Data-Joint Committee of Powder Diffraction Standards. Powder diffraction file (PDF) Newton Square: International Centre for Diffraction Data-Joint Committee of Powder Diffraction Standards; 2000.
  • 10
    Cardinal T, Fargin E, Flem E, Couzi M. Raman Scattering and XAFS Study of Optically Nonlinear Glasses of the TiO2-NaPO3-Na2B4O7 System. Journal of Solid State Chemistry 1995;120(1):151-156.
  • 11
    Kaur M, Singh A, Thakur V, Singh L. Effect of TiO2 substitution on optical and structural aspects of phosphate glasses. Journal of Molecular Structure 2015;1089:95-101.
  • 12
    Farrow LA, Vogel EM. Raman spectra of phosphate and silicate glasses doped with the cations Ti, Nb and Bi. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 1992;143:59-64.
  • 13
    Dias AG, Skakle JMS, Gibson IR, Lopes MA, Santos JD. In situ thermal and structural characterization of bioactive calcium phosphate glass ceramics containing TiO2 and MgO oxides: High temperature - XRD studies. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 2005;351(10-11):810-817.
  • 14
    Sakka S, Miyaji F, Fukumi K. Structure of binary K2O-TiO2 and Cs2O-TiO2 glasses. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 1989;112(1-3):64-68.
  • 15
    Zheng K, Liao J, Wang X, Zhang Z. Raman spectroscopic study of the structural properties of CaO-MgO-SiO2-TiO2 slags. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 2013;376:209-215.
  • 16
    Magyari K, Stefan R, Vulpoi A, Baia L. Bioactivity evolution of calcium-free borophosphate glass with addition of titanium dioxide. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 2015;410:112-117.
  • 17
    Tiwari B, Pandey M, Sudarsan V, Deb SK, Kothiyal GP. Study of structural modification of sodium aluminophosphate glasses with TiO2 addition through Raman and NMR spectroscopy. Physica B: Condensed Matter 2009;404(1):47-51.
  • 18
    Morikawa H, Lee S, Kasuga T, Brauer DS. Effects of magnesium for calcium substitution in P2O5-CaO-TiO2 glasses. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 2013;380:53-59.
  • 19
    El Batal FH, Ibrahim S, Marzouk MA. UV-visible, infrared absorption spectra of undoped and TiO2-doped lead phosphate glasses and the effect of gamma irradiation. Radiation Effects and Defects in Solids 2012;167(4):256-267.
  • 20
    Ramachandra Rao MV, Gandhi Y, Srinivasa Rao L, Sahayabaskaran G, Veeraiah N. Electrical and spectroscopic properties of LiF-Bi2O3-P2O5:TiO2 glass system. Materials Chemistry and Physics 2011;126(1-2):58-68.
  • 21
    Sene FF, Martinelli JR, Gomes L. Synthesis and characterization of niobium phosphate glasses containing barium and potassium. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 2004;348:30-37.

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    16 Feb 2017
  • Date of issue
    Mar-Apr 2017

History

  • Received
    31 Mar 2016
  • Reviewed
    11 Oct 2016
  • Accepted
    25 Jan 2017
ABM, ABC, ABPol UFSCar - Dep. de Engenharia de Materiais, Rod. Washington Luiz, km 235, 13565-905 - São Carlos - SP- Brasil. Tel (55 16) 3351-9487 - São Carlos - SP - Brazil
E-mail: pessan@ufscar.br