Hydrolysis of titanium tetrabutoxide. Study by FT-IR spectroscopy.

In this work we have studied the hydrolysis of titanium tetrabutoxide (:TTB ) in butyl alcohol. The hydrolysis was carried out by adding H2O for a mola r ratio water/alkoxide of 4. The hydrolysis has been followed by FT-IR spec troscopy, and the evolution of the Ti-O-C bands of the TTB molecule have be en analysed. These bands are located at 1130, 1100 and 1039 cm(-1) and thei r intensities decrease with the hydrolysis time. However, these bands do no t disappear for several days of hydrolysis confirming the difficulty to obt ain a completely hydrolysed TTB molecule. Two IR bands have been assigned t o Ti-OH groups and adsorbed H2O molecules. These bands appear at 3660 and 3 525 cm(-1) respectively and they are firstly observed when a white precipit ate appears in the solution. This work shows that this study can be rapidly carried out by FT-IR spectroscopy and can also be applied to the well-esta blished sol-gel process.