Electric Field Gradients of Light Impurities in TiO2 Calculated by the Full Potential KKR Green's Function Method

The electric field gradients (EFGs) of B, N, O and Na in TiO₂ were calculated by the full potential Korringa–Kohn–Rostoker (KKR) Greens function method in the framework of the density functional theory. The agreement with the experiments was much improved from the previous calculations that were based on the muffin-tin potential model.     

Sonocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B in the presence of C60 and CdS coupled TiO2 particles

CdS-TiO₂ and CdS-C₆₀/TiO₂ were prepared using C₆₀, cadmium acetate dehydrate [(CH₃COO)₂Cd·2H₂O], sodium sulfide (Na₂S·5H₂O) and titanium (IV) n-butoxide by a sol-gel method. The prepared sonocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). A rhodamine B (RhB) solution under ultrasonic irradiation was used to determine the catalytic activity. Excellent catalytic degradation of an RhB solution was observed using the CdS-C₆₀/TiO₂ composites under ultrasonic irradiation. C₆₀ coupled CdS-TiO₂ can enhance the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area and increase the decolorization rate for rhodamine B solution. The results also shows that increase the content of CdS can enhance the catalytic activity.     

Electric Field Gradients of Fluorides Calculated by the Full Potential KKR Green's Function Method

We report on the calculation of electric field gradients (EFGs) of MgF₂, MnF₂, CoF₂, NiF₂ and ZnF₂. EFGs were calculated by the full potential Korringa–Kohn–Rostoker (KKR) Green's function method in the framework of the density functional theory. While EFG calculation of these fluorides are rather difficult in the muffin-tin-potential model, due to its sensitivity to the muffin-tin radius, no difficulties arise in the present full potential treatments. EFGs calculated by this method well reproduce experimental data.     

Are LCAO-MO Models Useful Estimators for Electric Field Gradients in Simple Molecules?

In this tutorial paper we compare the ab-initio calculations of electronic charge densities and related electric field gradients in simple molecules like H₂ as well as the triangular H₃ with variable bond distance and bond angle using the Amsterdam Density Functional (ADF) code with calculations based on a simple linear combination of hydrogen 1s-orbitals. In order to gain more insight into ADF – or other ab-initio – calculations it is rather useful to vary structural parameters. In addition to geometry optimisations we propose to vary bond distances and bond angles over extended ranges in order to arrive at a better interpretation of the results.     

Electric field gradients in Hf2Fe

Perturbed Angular Correlations (PAC) technique was applied to measure the electric field gradients (EFG) at ¹⁸¹Ta sites in Hf₂Fe. The compound has the cubic structure of the Ti₂Ni prototype with two non‐equivalent crystallographic sites for Hf atoms. EFGs for the two sites were measured as a function of the temperature. In addition, one more EFG was observed, which was assigned to the presence of defects in the lattice. The ratio of the measured EFG at the regular lattice sites has been used to assign charges to the ions through a simple calculation using the point charge model and it is shown that the lattice symmetry can explain the very different EFG at both sites. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Magnetic Properties and the Electric Field Gradients of Fe4N and Fe4C

The magnetic properties and the hyperfine interactions of Fe₄N and Fe₄C under high pressures are discussed on the basis of first-principles electronic structure calculations performed by the KKR Green's function method and its extention into a full potential scheme (FP-KKR). The results show that both Fe₄N and Fe₄C undergo a weak first order transition from high to low spin states under pressure. This transition is sensitively reflected not only by H _hf but also by EFG. The calculated Curie temperature, magnetic moments and H _hf well reproduce the experimental observations.     

Characterization of TiO2 Nanoparticles in Langmuir-Blodgett Films

In this work we have synthesized TiO₂ nanoparticles, using either a sol–gel base catalysed process in the interior of CTAB reversed micelles (TiO₂ CTAB sol), or the neutralization of a TiO₂/H₂SO₄ solution in the interior of AOT reversed micelles. From the absorption and emission data of the TiO₂ nanoparticles it is possible to conclude that in the sol–gel route there remains alkoxide groups in the structure, originating transitions lower than the energy gap of TiO₂ semiconductor. These transitions disappear in the neutralization procedure, where the alkoxide groups are absent in the structure. We have assigned the observed indirect and direct optical transitions according to the anatase band structure. TiO₂ Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films were prepared either by direct deposition of titanium isopropoxide or by deposition of the TiO₂ CTAB sol. These films showed photoluminescence, which was attributed to band-gap emission and to surface recombination of defect states.     

Structures and magnetic behaviours of TiO2-Mn-TiO2 multilayers

The TiO2-Mn-TiO2 multilayers are successfully grown on glass and silicon substrates by alternately using radio frequency reactive magnetron sputtering and direct current magnetron sputtering. The structures and the magnetic behaviours of these films are characterised with x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscope (TEM), vibrating sample magnetometer, and superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). It is shown that the multi-film consists of a mixture of anatase and rutile TiO2 with an embedded Mn nano-film. It is found that there are two turning points from ferromagnetic phase to antiferromagnetic phase. One is at 42 K attributed to interface coupling between ferromagnetic Mn3O4 and antiferromagnetic Mn2O3, and the other is at 97 K owing to the interface coupling between ferromagnetic Mn and antiferromagnetic MnO. The samples are shown to have ferromagnetic behaviours at room temperature from hysteresis in the M-H loops, and their ferromagnetism is found to vary with the thickness of Mn nano-film. Moreover, the Mn nano-film has a critical thickness of about 18.5 nm, which makes the coercivity of the multi-film reach a maximum of about 3.965×10 2 T.     

硼(氮、氟)掺杂对TiO2纳米颗粒光学性能的影响

利用X射线衍射谱、拉曼光谱和紫外-可见光吸收光谱研究了硼(氮、氟)掺杂对TiO₂纳米颗粒光学性能的影响.X射线衍射谱和拉曼光谱结果表明,掺硼(氮、氟)对TiO₂纳米颗粒的锐钛矿相晶体结构无明显影响,而其锐钛矿晶格出现畸变(c/a值增大),这被归因于掺杂原子对TiO₂纳米颗粒表面氧原子缺位沿晶格c轴方向的占据.另外,掺硼(氮、氟)TiO₂纳米颗粒吸收带红移与TiO相似文献   

Quantum chemical calculations of the structural influence on electronic properties in TiO2 nanocrystals

ABSTRACT

Quantum chemical calculations for two TiO₂ nanoparticle cluster models (rutile–(TiO₂)_n with n = 20, and anatase–(TiO₂)_n with n = 92), selected to represent different nanoparticle size regimes, are used to elucidate structural influences on the electronic properties. Structural and electronic properties were obtained using a variety of computational methods and structure optimisation schemes, including a comparison of results for several different density functional theory functionals, as well as complementary Hartree–Fock and semi-empirical calculations. The results demonstrate a strong dependence of electronic properties, such as the optical band gap of importance for photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic applications, on the structure of the nanocrystal. From a methodological point of view, the calculations also provide useful information of broader significance about the viability of different computational schemes to efficiently obtain reliable computational results for intrinsically nanostructured materials.     

Electric Field Gradients in Metal Diborides

Systematic calculations of the electric field gradient V _zz with the FLAPW code WIEN97 have been performed for the metal diborides MB₂ (M = Mg–Al, Sc–Fe, Y–Mo, Lu–W) with the hexagonal C32 structure, where with knowledge of the lattice constants a, c all atomic positions are fixed. For V _zz (B) good agreement with the experimental result is found in all cases. The case of the recently discovered superconductor MgB₂ is discussed as representative example. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Preparation and Characterization of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) Coated TiO2 Nanoparticles

Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles were modified with poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) to improve the dispersion stability of the nanoparticles in a dielectric medium and to reduce the density mismatch between TiO₂ and a dielectric medium for a microcapsule‐type electrophoretic display application. Nanoparticles were coated with PMMA by in situ dispersion polymerization. The PMMA‐coated TiO₂ nanoparticles were characterized by fourier transform‐infrared spectrometrey (FT‐IR), electrophoretic light scattering (ELS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Density of PMMA‐coated TiO₂ nanoparticles was found to be dependent on the thickness of the PMMA coating on the nanoparticles. An increase of thermal stability of the PMMA layer and the contents of PMMA on the surface of the nanoparticles were measured via thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).     

First-principles study of ferromagnetism in N doped TiO2 and TiO

N doped TiO is nonmagnetic, in which spin-split impurity states are not induced near the Fermi energy (E_F) by N dopant. N doped TiO₂ along with transition-metal (TM) doped TiO is magnetic, in which spin-split impurity states are induced across E_F. The magnetic moment is determined by the 3d4s electron configurations and the valence states of TM-dopant ions when they substitute Ti. Hence, the origin of ferromagnetism of N doped TiO₂ and TiO is not closely related to the width of the band gaps of host oxides, but would be crucially related to that if the dopant can induce spin-split impurity states near E_F.     

Preparation of TiO2-coated LiMn2O4 by carrier transfer method

The TiO₂-coated LiMn₂O₄ has been prepared by a carrier transfer method and investigated. This novel synthetic method involved the transfer of TiO₂ into the surface of LiMn₂O₄ with Vulcan XC-72 active carbon powders as a dispersant. The X-ray diffraction shows that spinel structure of materials does not change after the coating of TiO₂. The electrochemical performance tests show that the initial discharge capacity of TiO₂-modified LiMn₂O₄ is 111.5 mA h g⁻¹, which is better than that of pristine LiMn₂O₄ (103.8 mA h g⁻¹). The cyclic performance is significantly improved after surface modification. The TiO₂-modified LiMn₂O₄ by a carrier transfer method exhibits better discharge capability and lower resistance.     

Half-metallic behaviour in doped TiO2 (rutile) with double impurities: ab initio calculation

Dilute magnetic oxides are without doubt among the most interesting classes of magnetic materials. However, the nature of their electronic structure and magnetic exchange is far from understood. Here, we apply the ab initio augmented spherical wave (ASW) method, with corrected generalised gradient approximation to study the electronic structure and magnetic properties of doped TiO₂ rutile with double impurities. The study reveals a half-metallic ferromagnetic behaviour for Ti_1?2x Cr _x Mo _x O₂, and the local magnetic moments of the impurities and their oxidation states agree with the charge transfer between Cr and Mo, which would lead to the ferromagnetic state through the double-exchange mechanism in transition metal oxides.     

Cobalt-doped TiO2: a computational analysis of dopant placement and charge transfer direction on thin film anatase

ABSTRACT

Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanocrystals are promising materials for photo-electrochemical water splitting. This study focuses on how surface dopant placement can affect the electronic properties. TiO₂ anatase thin films are doped two ways: a cobalt ion replacing a surface titanium ion (surface ingrained) and a cobalt ion chemisorbed to two surface oxygen ions and two NH₃ ligands. Specifically, when studying the binding pattern, the cobalt ion dopant changes from an electron acceptor for the surface ingrained model to an electron donor for the chemisorbed model. The optical absorption peaks of the surface ingrained model are attributed to p→d transitions and are much stronger when compared to the d→d transitions for the chemisorbed model. It is the conclusion of this computational study that one can alter the cobalt dopant on the anatase thin film to focus a positive or negative charge at the surface by changing the surface dopant location.     

Dip coated TiO2 nanostructured thin film: synthesis and application

TiO₂ thin film was fabricated by dip coating method using titanium IV chloride as precursor and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose as thickening as well as capping agent. Structural and morphological features of TiO₂ thin film were characterized by X-ray diffractometer and field emission scanning electron microscope, respectively. Crystallinity of the film was confirmed with high-intensity peak at (101) plane, and its average crystallite size was found to be 28 nm. The ethanol-sensing properties of TiO₂ thin film was studied by the chemiresistive method. Furthermore, various gases were tested in order to verify the selectivity of the sensor. Among the several gases, the fabricated TiO₂ sensor showed very high selectivity towards ethanol at room temperature.     

Fluctuating Electric Field Gradients at 111Cd in Ice

¹¹¹Cd–PAC measurements have been made using the high specific activity of ¹¹¹In in the methanol–water mixtures of various concentrations at the room temperature. These experiments revealed that the perturbation factors 〈A ₂ G ₂〉 (integrated over two mean lives τ_N) do not follow the dependence of the macroscopic viscosity η. The observed dynamic character of the PAC spectra in ice is explained by the mobility of orientational and ionic defects. The activation energy for the diffusion process was determined to be E _a =0.35(1) eV. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Phase transition rate of anatase during detonation synthesis of TiO2

TiO₂ powders were synthesized by two types of mixed explosives in a sealed reaction kettle. The phase and morphology of TiO₂ powders were obtained by X-ray diffractometry and transmission electron microscopy. Results indicate that powders obtained from metatitanic acid contained mixed explosive are mixed crystal of anatase and rutile. The phase transition rate of anatase increases from 22.9% to 93.3% with the rise of mass ratio of hexogen, and the grain size also enlarges gradually. The powder obtained from anatase contained mixed explosive is rutile, and the phase transition rate of anatase is 100%. Compared with that before detonation, the grain size of anatase after detonation significantly changes, from nanoscale to micronscale. Based on the calculation of detonation parameters, the phase transition process and grain growth during the synthesis of TiO₂ by means of detonation method are analyzed, and the nucleating collision–growth model is proposed.