Electro‐oxidation of Titanium Carbide Nanoparticles in Aqueous Acid Creates TiC@TiO2 Core‐Shell Structures
2021
Titanium carbide (TiC) is an attractive support material used in
electro-catalysis and sensing. We report the electrochemistry of
TiC nanoparticles (NPs, 35–50 nm in diameter) in different
electrolytes in the pH range of 0 to 8. The TiC NPs undergo
irreversible oxidation in acidic, basic, and neutral media,
attributed to the partial conversion into titanium dioxide (TiO2)
with the amount of oxidation highly dependent on the pH of
the solution. In H2SO4 (pH 0), multiple voltammetric scans
revealed the conversion to be partial but repeated scans
allowed a conversion approaching 100% to be obtained with
20 scans generating a ca 60% level of oxidation. The process is
inferred to lead to the formation of TiC@TiO2 core-shell nanoparticles (~12.5 nm core radius and ~5 nm shell width for a
60% conversion) and this value sharply decreases with an
increase of pH. Independent measurements were conducted at
a single NP level (via nano-impact experiments) to confirm the
oxidation of the NPs, showing consistent agreement with the
bulk measurements.
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