Precipitation of titania in a continuous-flow reactor with an organic base stabilizer

Abstract

Narrow-size-distribution, non-agglomerated TiO₂ powder was precipitated on a large scale within a continuous-flow reactor from high concentrations of titanium tetraethoxide (Ti(OEt)₄) and water in ethanol. A plug-flow reactor with static mixers enabled continuous TiO₂ production of 60 g h⁻¹ over a period of 8 h from 0.25 M alkoxide and 1.0 M water. The organic base triethylamine was added as a stabilizer to the alkoxide stream prior to synthesis. The resultant powder had an average particle diameter of 0.37 μm with about 85% singlets and a standard deviation in particle size of 16%.