Volume 9 Issue 2 ( June 2022 )

Titanium dioxide (TiO₂ ) nanosheets are potential candidate material to be developed for photocatalytic applications. The natural resources of TiO₂ are abundant in the form of the mineral ilmenite (FeTiO₃ ). In this work, TiO₂ nanosheets have been synthesized using ilmenite mineral as the precursor through a post- hydrothermal process with temperature variations of 80,100, 120, and 150^o C for 24 hours. The resulting TiO₂ nanosheets were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and ultraviolet visible-diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-DRS). XRD analysis showed that the majority phase of the nanosheets was anatase TiO₂ accompanied by a small amount of sodium-titanate. The SEM study reveals the average thickness of nanosheets derived from post-hydrothermal process was 24.86 nm. XRD test results also showed that the increase in post-hydrothermal temperature from 80 to 150^o C has resulted in an increase in the crystallite size of anatase TiO₂ from 35.14 to 45.59 nm. Such increase in the crystallite size has been found to lead to a decrease in the bandgap energy (Eg) of nanosheets from 2.85 tO2.70 eV. These results support the potential use of the resulting TiO₂ nanosheets as the photocatalytic material under the visible light illumination

Keywords: titanium dioxide nanosheets; ilmenite (FeTiO₃ ); optical properties