Fabrication and characteristics of rutile TiO2 nanoparticles induced by laser ablation

The laser ablation technique was employed to prepare TiO2 nanoparticles by pulsed laser ablation of a titanium target immersed in the poly-(vinylpyrrolidone) solution using wavelength of 1 064 nm. The as-prepared products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results indicate that the rutile TiO2 nanoparticles are synthesized at room temperature and the average size is about 35 nm with narrow size distribution. A possible formation mechanism was discussed and the UV-vis absorption and photoluminescence were measured. The optical study shows that rutile nanoparticle possesses direct optical transition with band gap of 3.15 eV.