Research Article Biotemplated Synthesis of Anatase Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles via Lignocellulosic Waste Material

Copyright © 2014 Donya Ramimoghadam et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in anymedium, provided the originalwork is properly cited. Anatase titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO 2-NPs) were synthesized by sol-gel method using rice straw as a soft biotemplate. Rice straw, as a lignocellulosic waste material, is a biomass feedstock which is globally produced in high rate and could be utilized in an innovative approach tomanufacture a value-added product. Rice straw as a reliable biotemplate has been used in the sol-gel method to synthesize ultrasmall sizes of TiO 2-NPs with high potential application in photocatalysis. The physicochemical properties of titanium dioxide nanoparticles were investigated by a number of techniques such as X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), ultraviolet visible spectra (UV-Vis), and surface area and pore size analysis. All results consensually confirmed that particle sizes of synthesized titanium dioxide were template-dependent, representing decrease in the nanoparticles sizes with increase of biotemplate concentration. Titanium dioxide nanoparticles as small as 13.0 ± 3.3 nm were obtained under our experimental conditions. Additionally, surface area and porosity of synthesized TiO 2-NPs have been enhanced by increasing rice straw amount which results in surface modification of nanoparticles and potential application in photocatalysis. 1