Study of anatase–rutile transition phase in monolithic catalyst V2O5/TiO2 and V2O5–WO3/TiO2 Original Research Article

Using different commercial TiO2 (anatase) powders, monolithic honeycomb structures were obtained by cold extrusion. In order to compare the anatase–rutile transformation for the V–Ti–O system with and without the presence of WO3, two systems were considered: V2O5–WO3/TiO2 and V2O5/TiO2. The FT-IR, XRD analyses and SEM observations show that the presence of WO3 influences both the morphology and the rate of formation of the rutile particles. the presence of WO3 increases the rate of particle propagation, which becomes higher than that of the nucleation process; the rutile particles are already evidently plate-shaped at the beginning of the phase transition. On the contrary, in titania powders which do not contain WO3, the propagation rate is lower than the nucleation process, the rutile particles have a rod-like shape and their presence can be detected by XRD analysis only when the anatase–rutile phase transformation is in progress.