Structural Changes of TiO2 as a Result of Irradiation by E-Beam and X-Rays

The subject of this research was to monitor and evaluate the effect of X-rays and e-beam irradiation on the structure of nanoscaled TiO2 and its properties. The samples of nanoscaled TiO2 were synthesized using the sol-gel method and subsequently exposed to thermal treatment to obtain the anatase crystalline structure. X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and Raman spectroscopy revealed the following changes in the structure as a result of the e-beam and X-ray irradiation: a decrease in the size of the crystallite of TiO2, an increase of the distance between the crystalline planes and the lattice parameters as well as the achievement of a certain degree of amorphization. As a consequence of the structural changes, thermal stability decreased. Also, a shift of the light absorption toward the visible end of the spectrum was detected and the energy of the band gap was reduced, indicating a better photocatalytic activity, i.e., the photocatalytic action can be shifted to the region of the visible light.