Effect of stoichiometry on the size of titanium monoxide nanoparticles produced by fragmentation

Coarse disordered and ordered titanium monoxide powders differing in composition-substoichiometric (TiO0.92), near-stoichiometric (TiO0.97 and TiO0.99), and superstoichiometric (TiO1.23)-have been disintegrated by milling. According to X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy data, milling produced nanoparticles down to 20 +/- 10 nm in size. The basic structure of the nanoparticles prepared from the disordered powders was identical to the parent basic structure B1. The structure of the nanoparticles prepared from the ordered powders with the C2/m structure also remained unchanged. Using the Williamson-Hall method, we assessed the effect of the stoichiometry of the starting powder on the size of the nanoparticles and found that an ordered state of near-stoichiometric titanium monoxide ensures a factor of 3 lower lattice strain in the nanoparticles.