Synthesis of TiO₂ nanorods from titania and titanyl sulfate produced from ilmenite dissolution by hydrothermal method

TiO₂ powder has been synthesized through hydrolysis-condensation of titanyl sulfate solution to a starting material of TiO₂ nanorods formation. This processing was conducted by the solid separation of TiO₂ from ilmenite by roasting ilmenite, acidic leaching (hydrolysis), and co-precipitation (condensation). Roasting of ilmenite was carried out by the addition of Na₂S at a temperature of 800°C. While the acidic leaching process was conducted by sulfuric acid at a various concentrations of 3, 3.5, 4.5, 6, and 9 M. The result shown that the solubility optimum occurs in H₂SO₄ 6 M condition. Separation of Fe impurities of TiO₂ gel from titanyl sulfate (TiOSO₄) solution was done through complexation using KCNS addition. The characteristic of TiO₂ obtained using X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) showed good crystallinity and purity. Further treatment of the TiO₂ is the formation of one-dimensional nano-size (1-D nanorods) through a hydrothermal method under basic condition NaOH 12M solution. TiO₂ nanorods were confirmed by Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) which indicated that the diameter of TiO₂ nanorods was about 7.02 nm in size. (paper)