Structural and electronic properties of sol-gel titanium oxides studied by X-ray absorption spectroscopy

X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) has been used to study the local Ti environment in titania xerogel samples containing nanoparticles of different sizes. The xerogels were prepared by hydrolysis of titanium isopropoxide followed by peptization with HNO3 and size control was achieved through calcination in air at different temperatures. An amorphous precipitate obtained by hydrolysis of titanium isopropoxide prior to peptization with HNO3 has also been studied. The X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) of the precipitate possesses a characteristic preedge that is dominated by a transition designated as A2 at 4970.7 eV, and assigned to five coordinate Ti. This A2 component is detected in all of the studied xerogels. Its intensity decreases as the surface-to-volume ratio of the titania particles decreases, suggesting that it is associated with surface layers of the anatase particles. Other changes observed in the XANES of the xerogels as a function of particle size include broadening of 1s --> np transitions in the postedge region. EXAFS shows that the smallest particles contain Ti in distorted coordination with contracted Ti-O bonds and probably reduced coordination number.