Synthesis of Titanium Dioxide (TiO₂) Using Sol-Gel Methods

Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) is a metal oxide that has high chemical stability, high biocompatibility, and high conductivity properties as a semiconductor. The sol-gel method has been used for TiO₂ production as it is the easiest way to produce TiO₂ powder with high purity. In this study, TiO₂ powder was synthesized through the sol-gel method with titanium(III) chloride (TiCl₃) as a precursor. The mixture of TiCl₃ and NH₄OH solutions to form a sol was followed by a sonication process to form a gel. The formed gel is then dried and followed by calcination at 500 ℃. The results obtained TiO2 powder with a yield of 5.68%. The resulting TiO₂ powder was characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to examine the surface structure, revealing asymmetrically shaped TiO₂ powders with non-uniform particle sizes. Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analysis showed the elemental composition of the material, showing a high percentage of Ti (45.38 ± 3.94%) and O (45.28 ± 7.78%) without any impurities. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) in the wavenumber range of 4000–400 cm⁻¹ showed the presence of Ti–O bending vibrations as a strong absorption band at the wavenumber range of 900–400 cm⁻¹_, which indicates successful synthesis.