Conductive TiO2 nanorods via surface coating by antimony doped tin dioxide

Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) has been widely used as the white pigment in paintings and coatings. It is of significance to endow TiO 2 powders with the high conductivity to extend its application. In this research, rutile TiO 2 nanorods were prepared as the substrate material. Further the surface coating by antimony doped tin dioxide (Sb SnO 2 ) shell layers was achieved to obtain conductive TiO 2 nanorods . The morphology and structure of TiO 2 @Sb SnO 2 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 Sb SnO 2 crystalline regions on the surface of TiO 2 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 Sb SnO 2 shell layers would be destroyed, resulting in the increased electrical resistivity. The conductive TiO 2 nanorods obtained at the optimized reaction condition showed a very low resistivity of 52 ± 1.6 Ω cm, in contrast to 10 5  Ω cm of the pure TiO 2 . The conductive TiO 2 nanorods would be excellent candidate for antistatic or electromagnetic shielding applications in coatings.