Preparation, microstructure and luminescence properties of TiO 2 /WO 3 composites

Tungsten oxide (WO 3 ) nanomaterials have become a hot spot in the current research on metal oxides due to their good antibacterial and anticancer properties. In this paper, WO 3 was prepared by the sol–gel method, and samples with different structures and morphologies were obtained by controlling the pH value. Ammonium paratungstate and tetrabutyl titanate were used as raw materials, and the amount of Tetrabutyl titanate (TBOT) was changed to regulate the TiO 2 /WO 3 samples were prepared by varying the amount of TBOT. The structure, morphology and luminescence properties were also investigated. The results show that the monoclinic WO 3 nanoparticles as well as TiO 2 /WO 3 composite nanomaterials were prepared successfully. Under acidic and alkaline conditions, the particles are mainly rod-shaped and granular, and the smaller the pH is, the smaller the particle size is. The average grain size is 49.8 nm. The strongest luminescence of the samples at 611 nm was evident at an excitation wavelength of 394 nm. The luminescence property of WO 3 prepared under alkaline condition is better than that under acidic condition. The luminescence intensity of the prepared TiO 2 /WO 3 composites by adding 1 ml TBOT in acidic conditions increased by 21% compared with that of 2 ml TBOT. The luminescence intensity of the prepared TiO 2 /WO 3 composites by adding 2 mL TBOT in alkaline condition increased by 14% compared with that prepared by adding 1 mL TBOT.