Nanocrystalline titanium carbide/carbon composites as irradiation targets for isotopes production

Aiming at the preparation of porous targets of titanium carbide with excess of carbon, the sol-gel technique wasused: Ti alkoxide precursors were reacted with a phenol-based resin under acid catalysed conditions of hydro-lysis. The hydrolysis and condensation of titanium alkoxide provided titania nanoparticles covalently bondedwith the phenolic resin behaving as carbon source, meanwhile preserving coordination with acetate ligands. Thisprepolymer containing Ti–O–Ti bonds, linkages between TiOx and the phenol resin and chelation with acetategroups were treated under inert atmosphere at high temperature (up to 1750 °C). The different stages of thecarbothermal reduction were studied by FT-IR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy and ScanningElectron Microscopy. Specific surface area and occurrence of meso/micro pores of the nanocomposites weredetermined by N2physisorption, while the assessment of porosity was obtained by mass and volume mea-surements and He picnometry analysis. Results show that nano-sized TiC crystals embedded into afinely dis-tributed carbon matrix were obtained, showing optimal functional properties for the potential application, suchas optimized composition, high specific surface area and open porosity. The developed material can be used as asource of radioisotopes for nuclear medicine once irradiated in existing or future production facilities such asISOLPHARM at INFN-LNL (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare–Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro).