Titania-Based Hybrid Materials with ZnO, ZrO(2) and MoS(2): A Review

Titania has properties that enable it to be used in a variety of applications, including self-cleaning surfaces, air and water purification systems, hydrogen evolution, and photoelectrochemical conversion. In order to improve the properties of titanium dioxide, modifications are made to obtain oxide/hybrid systems that are intended to have the properties of both components. In particular, zinc oxide, zirconia and molybdenum disulfide have been proposed as the second component of binary systems due to their antibacterial, electrochemical and photocatalytic properties. This paper presents a review of the current state of knowledge on the synthesis and practical utility of TiO(2)-ZnO and TiO(2)-ZrO(2) oxide systems and TiO(2)-MoS(2) hybrid materials. The first part focuses on the hydrothermal method; then a review is made of the literature on the synthesis of the aforementioned materials using the sol-gel method. In the last section, the literature on the electrospinning method of synthesis is reviewed. The most significant physico-chemical, structural and dispersive-morphological properties of binary hybrid systems based on TiO(2) are described. A key aim of this review is to indicate the properties of TiO(2)-ZnO, TiO(2)-ZrO(2) and TiO(2)-MoS(2) hybrid systems that have the greatest importance for practical applications. The variety of utilities of titania-based hybrid materials is emphasized.