Towards Iron-Titanium Oxide Nanostructures from Ecuadorian Black Mineral Sands

Abstract

Ecuadorian black mineral sands were used as starting material for the production of iron-titanium oxide nanostructures. For this purpose, two types of mineral processing were carried out, one incorporating a pre-treatment before conducting an alkaline hydrothermal synthesis (NaOH 10 M at 180 °C for 72 h), and the other prescinding this first step. Nanosheet-assembled flowers and nanoparticle agglomerates were obtained from the procedure including the pre-treatment. Conversely, nanobelts and plate-like particles were prepared by the single hydrothermal route. The nanoscale features of the product morphologies were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses. The ilmenite and hematite molar fractions, within the ilmenite-hematite solid solution, in the as-synthetized samples were estimated by Brown’s approach using the computed values of unit-cell volumes from Le Bail adjustments of X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) patterns. The resulting materials were mainly composed of Fe-rich ilmenite-hematite solid solutions (hematite molar contents ≥0.6). Secondary phases, which possibly belong to lepidocrocite-like or corrugated titanate structures, were also identified. The current study demonstrated the feasibility of employing Ecuadorian mineral resources as low-cost precursors to synthesize high-added-value nanostructures with promising applications in several fields.