Anatase titanium dioxide was synthesized using a hydrothermal treatment of bis(ammonium lactato) titanium dihydroxide (ALT) under a variety conditions. Heating the precursor produces highly crystalline particles that do not undergo a crystal phase transition upon calcination; however, it does remove a layer of surface adsorbed lactate. Three titanium-polyelectrolyte composites (PAA, PAH, and PEI) were formed through electrostatic polymer chain collapse. In order to gain a measure of the relative photo-activity of these various samples the interaction and de-colouration of methylene blue (MB) was investigated. The composite particles were not active whereas the non-composite titanium dioxide and solution phase PAA were individually active. MB was found to form dimers with anionic PAA through electrostatic interaction; however, there was no difference in the de-colouration rate of these dimers versus the monomers. Finally, it was found that pre-irradiating the polyelectrolyte prior to combining with MB decreases the de-colouration rate.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/25853 |
| Date | 12 January 2011 |
| Creators | McAuley, Scott |
| Contributors | Goh, M. Cynthia |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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