Titanium dioxide is a material with a wide range of applications, from catalysis and use in solar cells to white pigments. In nature, it occurs in various mineral forms, which need to be processed before industrial use, potentially affecting its physical and chemical properties. In industry, two main crystalline forms of titanium dioxide are predominantly used: anatase and rutile. The phase composition significantly influences the properties of the final product, and impurities can also have an impact.
Anatase is the more common and metastable form of titanium dioxide found in nature, whereas rutile is the stable form produced from anatase at elevated temperatures. In my research, I studied the phase transition from anatase to rutile, which is a crucial part of the manufacturing process. Understanding this transition is important for optimizing the process and improving the quality of the final product.
Through thermogravimetric analysis, I determined the presence of water and sulfur dioxide, while using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and the Rietveld method to quantify the phases present. I calculated the crystalline size of the material using the Scherrer formula and determined the kinetic parameters of the phase transition with the Avrami equation and first-order kinetics.
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