Preparation and Characterization of Nanosized Titania Prepared from Beach Black Sands Broad on the Mediterranean Sea Coast in Egypt via Reaction with Acids

In spite of the presence of huge quantities of black sands broaden along the beach of Mediterranean Sea, Egypt, which contain high reserves from ilmenite, only few studies were concerned with the extraction of titania from bearing titanium minerals. At the same time, the importation of titanium and titanium dioxide pigment costs, yearly, many millions of dollars. So that, the study in the article was directed to achieve the goal of production of such compounds at home. This achievement was verified through several steps. The first one was concerned with the characterization of ilmenite sample by means of suitable analytical and spectroscopic techniques. The second step was devoted to throw the light on different thermodynamic parameters of reaction of ilmenite with HCl and H2SO4 in order to suggest the kinetics and mechanism of the reaction, which help in addition to extraction experiments in determination of the optimum conditions which verify the optimum extraction of titania from ilmenite. The studies in the investigation was extended to include the preparation of nanosized titania from the reaction products. The dimensions of the later compound varied between 22 and 46 nm in case of using H2SO4 and varied between 29 and 59 nm in case of using Hcl.