Novel synthesis and characterization of cobalt titanate nanoparticles: investigation of capping agents effect and its photocatalyst application

This work has provided a general, simple, and effective method to control the composition and morphology of CoTiO3 nanoparticles, which revealed potential new insight into inorganic synthesis methodology. CoTiO3 nanoparticles were synthesized via a novel route based on the reaction between cobalt salt and tetra-n-butyl titanate (TNBT) in ethanol. Results of this investigation demonstrate that CoTiO3 with very uniform sphere-like shape, small grain size and pure rhombohedral phase could be synthesized by different capping agents such as asparagine, alanine, and leucine. XRD, SEM, EDS, and UV–vis spectroscopy were employed to characterize structural, morphological, and optical properties of CoTiO3 nanoparticles. According to the vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) result, CoTiO3 nanoparticles indicated a paramagnetic behavior at room temperature. Furthermore, the photocatalytic properties of as synthesized CoTiO3 were evaluated by degradation of methyl orange (MO) as water contaminant.