SYNTHESIS AND OPTIMIZATION OF DMF-CONTROLLED NANOMATERIALS USING BBD-RSM APPROACH FOR PHENOL DEGRADATION

The objective of the present research is to synthesize facile TiO2 nanomaterials (TNMs) via a simple hydrothermal method. TiO2 nanoparticles (TNPs), titanium isopropoxide (TIP) and TiO2 nanotubes (TNTs) were employed as titanium sources under an alkaline environment using N, N dimethylformamide (DMF) as novel morphology-controlling agent (MCA). A Box-Behnken experimental design in response surface methodology was applied to optimize the key synthesis parameters for tuneable TNMs performance by manipulating the reaction temperature (120 to 180oC), time (3 to 48 hr) and DMF dose (5 to 40 mL). The quadratic model was found to be best-fitted with the maximum R2 upto 0.989.