Articles
  • Study of effect of high-energy grinding and niobium-doping on the semiconducting properties of the CaTiSiO5 compound

  • Pablo C. Carbo-Velab,*, José M. Almanza-Roblesa, Dora A. Cortés-Hernándeza, José C. Escobedo-Bocardoa, José A. Rodríguez-Garcíab and Wilian J. Pech-Rodríguezb

  • aCentro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional Unidad Saltillo, Ave. Industria Metalúrgica No. 1062, Parque Industrial Saltillo-Ramos Arizpe, C.P. 25900, Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila, México
    bUniversidad Politécnica de Victoria, Av. Nuevas Tecnologías No. 5902, Parque Científico y Tecnológico de Tamaulipas, C.P. 87138, Cd. Victoria, Tamaulipas, México

  • This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Titanite (CaTiSiO5) was prepared from a mixture of CaCO3, TiO2 and SiO2 with and without high-energy mechanical activation. Niobium-doped titanite samples were prepared without mechanical activation from a mixture of CaCO3, TiO2, SiO2 and Nb2O5 according to CaTi1-xNbxSiO5, where x = 0.0, 0.05, 0.1 and 0.15. All samples were heat treated at 1250°C for 4 h. Then, samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and UV-vis spectroscopy and selected samples were evaluated by cyclic voltammetry. Titanite was obtained as a single phase in samples with mechanical activation while the no activated sample showed the presence of second phases. The band gap values are within the range of semiconductor materials (3.34 and 3.47 eV). The current densities under off and on conditions were 1.06 and 1.65 mAcm-2, respectively. These values are related to the oxygen evolution reaction. The more appropriated results were obtained for the titanite obtained with mechanical activation. On the other hand, according to X-ray diffraction results, the maximum amount of Nb-doped titanite obtained after heat treatment was 95.1 wt.%. The band gap was reduced, from 3.48 to 3.36 eV, as Nb concentration was increased. Nonetheless, all titanite-based compounds are semiconductor materials suitable to be used as photocatalytic materials.


Keywords: High-energy ball milling, Photo-electrochemical properties, Calcium titanium silicate, Doping process, Powders.

This Article

  • 2025; 26(1): 23-29

    Published on Feb 28, 2025

  • 10.36410/jcpr.2025.26.1.23
  • Received on Jul 31, 2024
  • Revised on Sep 30, 2024
  • Accepted on Nov 5, 2024

Correspondence to

  • Pablo C. Carbo-Vela

  • Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional Unidad Saltillo, Ave. Industria Metalúrgica No. 1062, Parque Industrial Saltillo-Ramos Arizpe, C.P. 25900, Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila, México
    Tel : +52(834)1711100 Fax: +52(834)1711100

  • E-mail: pcarbov@upv.edu.mx