The phase stability of nanocrystaline anatase and rutile TiO2 in sols peptized at different temperature has been studied by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and thermodynamical analysis. The results show that the stability of nanocrystaline TiO2 of different crystal types is a function of particle size. According to the thermodynamical analysis, anatase TiO2 becomes more stable than rutile TiO2 when the particle size is less than ca. 14 nm, which coincides with the experimental data obtained by XRD. Both surface Gibbs free energy and surface stress play important roles in the thermodynamically phase stability. Comparing the data calculated thermodynamically with the experimental results obtained under different temperatures, it is found that the constant K in the function relation, f=KGS, between surface free energy GS and surface stress f is temperature dependent and equal to 1 at 333 K and 2 at 453 K, respectively.
