Coating of Ordered Large-Pore Mesoporous Silica with TiO2 Nanoparticles and Evaluation of Its Photocatalytic Activity

A. Haghighatzadeh a, B. Mazinani b and M. Abdolahpour Salaric aPhysics Group, Department of Sciences, Ahvaz Branch, Islamic Azad University, P.O. Box 61349-68875, Ahvaz, Iran bDepartment of Materials Engineering, Malayer University, Malayer, Iran cDepartment of Physics, Science Faculty, Ataturk University, 25240, Erzurum, Turkey

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In this work, at first large pore size SiO2 mesostructure was prepared using amphiphilic triblock copolymer (P123) as a template, tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as Si source and hexane as micelle expander by hydrothermal procedure. Separately, a stable transparent titania sol was synthesized using titanium isopropoxide (TTIP) as titanium source. Then achieved mesoporous silica structure was stirred in the titania sol resulting in formation of a titanium dioxide anatase layer on the silica structure. The sample was characterized with wide angle X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption-desorption analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy maps of silicon and titanium. The photocatalytic performance of prepared composite material was evaluated using UV-vis spectroscopy as well. The prepared material showed much higher photodegradation of methyl blue (MB) than commercial P-25 which was attributed to high surface area (290 m2/g), anatase phase, small crystallite size and accessible pores.

DOI: 10.12693/APhysPolA.132.420 topics: mesoporous, titania, silica, photocatalytic activity