Fabrication of TiO₂-Aerogel with NiB Nano-Clusters and Its Structural Characterization and Catalysis Evaluation

We have prepared titania aerogel (=AG) embedded by NiB nano-clusters by sol-gel method, immersion of the prepared wet gel into the NiB dispersed solution, and the subsequent super critical drying (=SCD). The AG was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), a transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and a fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FT-IR). XRD and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns assured the formation of TiO2 anatase phase. TEM observation reveled the composition of TiO2 crystallites with about 4 nm in size. Catalyst performance for the ground sample was confirmed by chemical reaction of oxidation of benzene at low temperature, and the difference in catalyst performance between TiO2 AGs with and without the embedded NiB nano-clusters has been examined.