Synthesis of Titanate Nanosheets from Indigenous Indonesian Ilmenite Minerals

Abstract

Titanate nanosheets are a type of 2-dimensional nanomaterial with vast applications in electronics, energy storage, and photocatalysis due to their superior properties, such as their large specific surface area and excellent electrical conductivity. Titanate nanosheets are expected to be the material precursor of TiO2 nanostructures with further treatment. The current research aims to synthesize titanate nanosheets using the natural mineral ilmenite from Indonesia through the hydrothermal method. X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Brunaeur-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis were used to characterize the chemical composition, crystal structure, shape, size, and specific surface area of the prepared samples. The structure phase of the as-synthesized sample is known to be layered titanate. The as-synthesized nanosheet sample has a diameter ranging from 2.5 to 4 μm and BET surface areas of approximately 40 m2/g. This concise hydrothermal method could create 2-dimensional structured nanomaterials from Indonesian local minerals.