Noncrystalline Titanium Oxide Catalysts for Electrochemical Oxygen Reduction Reactions

Titanium oxides crystals are widely used in a variety of fields, but little has been reported on the functionalities of noncrystalline intermediates formed in their structural transformation. We measured the oxygen reduction reaction activity of titanium oxide nanoparticles heat-treated for a different time and found that the activity abruptly increased at a certain time of the treatment. We analyzed their structures by using X-ray pair distribution functions with the help of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and ascertained that the abrupt increase in the activity corresponded to a structural transformation from a reduced lepidocrocite-type layered titanate to a disordered structure consisting of domains of brookite-like TiO₆ octahedral linkages. The further treatment transformed these brookite-like domains into another phase having more edge-sharing sites like the TiO-type cubic structure. This finding would position noncrystalline, disordered structure as a possible origin of the catalytic activity, though nanocrystalline rutile particles might be also considered as the origin.