On the possibility of controlling the morphology of carbon-containing titanium dioxide-based nanocomposites during pulsed plasma chemical synthesis

Three sets of carbon-containing nanocomposites based on titanium dioxide were synthesised by changing the concentrations of the original precursors (CH4, (2)) using a pulsed plasma chemical method. The elemental and chemical analyses of the synthesised nanocomposites were performed. The morphology of the carbon-containing titanium dioxide-based nanocomposites was studied by transmission electron microscopy. To determine the crystal structures of the nanocomposites, the standard method of X-ray phase analysis was used. The band gaps for the synthesised carbon-containing titanium dioxide-based composites were calculated using the diffuse reflectance spectra in the range of 1.3-3.6eV. It was experimentally proved that the band gap for indirect transitions depended on the total carbon content in the synthesised samples and was 2.76eV for some samples.