Title: Size controlled nanocrystalline TiO₂ supported on mesostructured SBA-15 for better photocatalytic performance

Authors: Dipti R. Sahu; Sheng-Chang Wang; L.Y. Hong; Jow-Lay Huang

Addresses: Department of Natural and Applied Science, Namibia University of Science and Technology, Private Bag 13388, Windhoek, Namibia ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Tainan, Taiwan ' Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 701, Taiwan ' Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 701, Taiwan

Abstract: Nanocrystalline TiO₂ was prepared using sol gel hydrolysis and silica SBA-15 using organic solvent method. The synthesised SBA-15 served as the TiO₂ support to reduce the TiO₂ grain size and well-dispersed TiO₂ for enhancement of photocatalytic activity. The synthesised titania/silica composites were characterised by X-ray diffraction, FTIR, TEM, UV-Visible spectroscopy, etc. TEM micrographs showed that the organic solute template method could prepare the titania-silica composite, and successfully embedded titania in SBA-15 channel. The mesoporous structure restrained the titania grain size within 5-7 nm which caused blue shift identified by UV-Vis spectra. The photo catalytic test of this material has been studied using methylene blue which shows improved performance than TiO₂. Titania loading on the silica matrix decreases the surface area of the support and there is systematic decrease in their pore volume values, as titania content increases.

Keywords: mesoporous; titania; SBA-15; nanoparticle; pore size.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNBM.2017.090132

International Journal of Nano and Biomaterials, 2017 Vol.7 No.2, pp.150 - 161

Received: 07 Apr 2017
Accepted: 22 Oct 2017
Published online: 28 Feb 2018 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article