Synthesis, Structure and Applications of TiO2 Gels

TiO2 gels are usually obtained through hydrolysis of titanium alkoxides. Chemical additives can however react with the precursor at a molecular level and therefore modify the hydrolysis-condensation reactions. Several examples will be described :acetic acid, acetylacetone or Cr(acac)3. The whole sol-gel process is followed all the way from the precursors to the gel and each step is characterized by spectroscopic experiments (Infra-red, N.M.R, E.S.R.). Some electronic properties of TiO2 gels are then described. Chemical addi-tives allow an optimization of thý sol-gel process according to each speci-fic applications : electrochromic display devices, photoanodes or photoche-mical reactions.