Raman study of 2D anatase TiO2 nanosheets

Herein, we present for the first time a spectroscopic study of two-dimensional (2D) anatase TiO2 nanosheets. Previous publications demonstrated that Raman spectroscopy was mostly employed to characterize the TiO2 nanoparticle size and the phase transition of amorphous-anatase and anatase-rutile. In this study, TiO2 nanosheets were characterized by XRD, AFM and Raman spectroscopy, which demonstrated a shift toward higher frequency and broadening in the full width at half maximum of the characteristic E-g mode by decreasing the thickness of anatase TiO2 with a 2D nanostructure. In contrast to the study of TiO2 nanoparticles, the Raman vibrations can be attributed to phonon confinement in 2D TiO2 nanosheets which can be employed to characterize the thickness of TiO2 nanosheets. In order to effectively identify the thickness of the 2D TiO2 nanostructure, we established a reliable method for the examination by characterizing the shifts of the E-g mode.