Effect of B2O3 on the Structure, Properties and Antibacterial Abilities of Sol-Gel-Derived TiO2/TeO2/B2O3 Powders

Abstract

This paper studies the influence of B2O3 on the structure, properties and antibacterial abilities of sol-gel-derived TiO2/TeO2/B2O3 powders. Titanium(IV) butoxide, telluric(VI) acid and boric acid were used as precursors. Differences were observed in the degree of decomposition of Ti butoxide in the presence of H3BO3 and H6TeO6 acids. The phase transformations of the obtained gels in the temperature range of 200–700 °C were investigated by XRD. Composite materials containing an amorphous phase and different crystalline phases (metallic Te, α-TeO2, anatase, rutile and TiTe3O8) were prepared. Heating at 400 °C indicated a crystalline-to-amorphous-phase ratio of approximately 3:1. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis showed the preparation of plate-like TiO2 nanoparticles. The IR results showed that the short-range order of the amorphous phases that are part of the composite materials consists of TiO6, BO3, BO4 and TeO4 structural units. Free B2O3 was not detected in the investigated compositions which could be related to the better connectivity between the building units as compared to binary TiO2/B2O3 compositions. The UV-Vis spectra of the investigated gels exhibited a red shift of the cut-off due to the presence of boron and tellurium units. The binary sample achieved the maximum photodegradation efficiency (94%) toward Malachite green dye under UV irradiation, whereas the ternary sample photoactivity was very low. The compositions exhibited promising antibacterial activity against E. coli NBIMCC K12 407.