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Publications in Scientific Journals:

J. Bahadur, J. Prakash, D. Sen, S. Mazumder, P. Sastry, B. Paul, J. Chakravartty, H. Lemmel:
"A facile fabrication of a uniform and homogeneous CNT - TiO_2 composite: a microscopic and scattering investigation";
RSC Advances, 4 (2014), 13231 - 13240.



English abstract:
We demonstrated a facile and robust two-step method to fabricate a carbon nanotube - titania nano
composite using spray hydrolysis and a chemical vapour deposition (CVD) technique with control over
the morphology and deposition chemistry of reaction. Hierarchically structured NiO doped TiO 2
submicrospheres have been realized by hydrolysis of titanium alkoxide at the water - oil interface of
micrometer sized droplets. Utilizing these TiO 2 microspheres, a composite of TiO 2 - CNT has been
synthesized through the CVD technique. Mesoscopic structural investigations have been carried out on
composites using ultra small-angle neutron scattering, and small-angle X-ray scattering. There exist
three distinct length scales in the composite microspheres. Thermal evolution of microstructure was
investigated by in situ X-ray di ff raction which clearly indicates an amorphous to crystalline transition of
TiO 2 . It is established that the polymorphic phase transition of TiO 2 nanoparticles is associated with the
increase in its size. Microscopic studies showed that the TiO 2 substrate has given a uniform growth
surface for CNTs. Furthermore, their growth mechanism has been discussed.


"Official" electronic version of the publication (accessed through its Digital Object Identifier - DOI)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c4ra00619d


Created from the Publication Database of the Vienna University of Technology.