Spectroscopic Study of Halogenoalkoxides as Molecular Precursors of Metal Oxides

Halogenoalkoxides are promising molecular precursors in sol-gel technology. They exhibit a lower sensitivity towards hydrolysis than common alkoxides and so they are easier to handle. Moreover they exhibit very interesting properties during the final thermal treatment wherein the organic compounds are eliminated and allow pure mineral phases to be obtained at low temperature. We mainly studied hydrolysed titanium halogenoalkoxides (wherein we changed the halide element) using TGA-FTIR coupling allowing to perfectly determine the nature of the eliminated compounds. Finally, the reliability of this analytical tool was confirmed by a scale-up made with a larger amount of precursors in a tubular furnace by following the optimum profile determined by the TGA-FTIR coupling. The quality of the mineral phases was then characterised by RAMAN and ED-XRMA.