Synthesis and characterisation of titanium dioxide nanoparticles prepared within hyperbranched polyethylenimine polymer template using a modified sol–gel method

Templated synthesis of nanoparticles has been shown to result in uniform sized and well dispersed particles. Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles were prepared through a modified sol–gel method using hyperbranched polyethyleneimine (HPEI) as a template to reduce their agglomeration. The synthesised HPEI/TiO₂ nanocomposites were characterised by techniques such as Transmission Electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Powder-X-ray Diffraction spectroscopy (XRD) and Thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). TEM micrographs illustrated formation of small and well dispersed TiO₂nanoparticles. The use of HPEI therefore had a huge impact on the size, shape and dispersion of theTiO₂ nanoparticles.