| Abstract Scope |
Recently, we converted 15 binary and ternary titanium carbides, nitrides, borides, phosphides, and silicides into lepidocrocite-based, one dimensional, 1D, sub-nanometer nanofilaments, NFs, ≈ 5x7 Å in cross-section by reacting them with a tetramethylammonium hydroxide, TMAH, aqueous solution at ≈ 85 °C range for tens of hours. In some cases, the conversion is 100 % precluding the need for centrifuges, filters, etc. We currently routinely make 100 g batches in a lab setting. Depending on with what and the order the reaction products are washed, the 1D NFs self-assemble into loose, spaghetti-shaped fibers, ≈ 30 nm in diameter, fully inorganic TiO2 gels, pseudo 2D or porous mesoscopic particles. In all cases, the fundamental building block is 1D lepidocrocite NFs, ≈ 3 nm long, that self-assemble into the aforementioned morphologies. At this time, we believe that our materials are the only thermodynamically stable 1D NFs in water, with important implications in photo- and chemical catalysis. The production of hydrogen for times of the order of 6 months with production rates an order of magnitude higher than P25, will be discussed. The adsorption of some cations like uranium and dyes by the 1D NFs, that in some cases outperform high adsorption clays. We also discovered that some common dyes sensitize the 1D NFs which allows for their degradation using only visible light. This is important in this respect because the band gap energy, ≈ 4 eV, of our 1D NFs is a record for titania-based materials due to quantum confinement. Other applications will be touched upon as well. |