Preparation and Spectroscopic Characterization of Ilmenite-Type $CoTiO_3$ Nanoparticles

The cobalt titanate, $CoTiO_3$ nanoparticles have been prepared by calcinations of precursor obtained from a mixture of $TiO_2$ and $Co(OH)_2$ in aqueous cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) solution. The nanoparticles were investigated with X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and thermogravimetric/differential thermal analysis (TGA/DTA) to determine the crystallite size and the phase composition. The spectroscopic characterizations of these nanoparticles were also done with UV-Vis spectroscopy and FT-Raman spectroscopy. XRD patterns show that $CoTiO_3$ phase was formed at calcinations temperature above 600 ${^{\circ}C}$. UV-Vis absorption spectra indicate that the $CoTiO_3$ nanoparticles have significant red shift to the visible region (400-700 nm) with $\lambda_{max}$ = 500 nm compared to pure $TiO_2$ powder ($\lambda_{max}$ = 320 nm). The new absorption peaks (absorption at 696, 604, 520, 478,456, 383, 336, 267, 238, 208 $c m ^{-1}$), which were not appeared in FT-Raman spectra of P-25, also confirm the formation of Ti-O-Co bonds at above 600 ${^{\circ}C}$ and just not the mixtures of titanium dioxide with cobalt oxides.