Simultaneous DLS–SLS study of titanium and titanium/silicon oxide sol growth

A commercial DLS setup was used for simultaneous DLS/SLS analysis of sol growth of titanium and titanium/silicon oxides. The scattering data were analyzed in dynamic and static modes which allowed evaluating particle size and concentration simultaneously. A binary solvent (acetone/ethanol mixture) was introduced which effectively controls monodisperse growth behavior by simply adjusting its ratio. Fixing the solvent composition to the ratio which delayed gelation the most, the effect of the amount of catalyst (acetic acid), hydrolyzing agent (water) and titanium oxide precursor (titanium tetraisopropoxide) on growth kinetics were studied. Taking the advantage of extra functionalities of the catalyst used, acetic acid, i.e., decreasing the reactivity of titanium tetraisopropoxide and increasing the reactivity of tetraethyl orthosilicate, hybrid titanium/silicon oxide growth was also studied. Here, we step-by-step showed that particle size, particle concentration and sol-to-gel transition time of titanium and titanium/silicon oxide systems can be well controlled by adjusting the composition of formulations in ambient conditions. We also showed how practical the laser light scattering is to evaluate even the early onsets of growth profiles long before visual identification of clouding. The findings reported here are particularly important for practical applications of sol–gel technology where the control of particle size/concentration and gelation time is advantageous. Graphical Abstract