Conductive TiO2 nanorods via surface coating by antimony doped tin dioxide

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been widely used as the white pigment in paintings and coatings. It is of significance to endow TiO2 powders with the high conductivity to extend its application. In this research, rutile TiO2 nanorods were prepared as the substrate material. Further the surface coating by antimony doped tin dioxide (SbSnO2) shell layers was achieved to obtain conductive TiO2 nanorods. The morphology and structure of TiO2@SbSnO2 nanorods was mainly focused on to obtain high conductivity by optimizing the calcination temperature. When the temperature was properly applied at nearly 500 °C, the calcination led to the fusion and attachment of SbSnO2 crystalline regions on the surface of TiO2 nanorods, forming a continuous intact coating layer and thus getting lower volume electrical resistivity of the composite nanopowder. However, after calcination at 600 °C or higher temperature, the integrity of SbSnO2 shell layers would be destroyed, resulting in the increased electrical resistivity. The conductive TiO2 nanorods obtained at the optimized reaction condition showed a very low resistivity of 52 ± 1.6 Ω cm, in contrast to 105 Ω cm of the pure TiO2. The conductive TiO2 nanorods would be excellent candidate for antistatic or electromagnetic shielding applications in coatings.