Preparation of 3D ordered mesoporous anatase TiO ₂ and their photocatalytic activity

Ordered crystalline mesoporous anatase titanium dioxides with different amounts of rutile were prepared by hard‐template approaches using mesoporous silica (KIT‐6) as the template. The resulting mesoporous materials were characterized by powder X‐ray diffraction (PXRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), N 2 adsorption and Raman spectroscopy. All mesoporous TiO 2 has three‐dimensional (3D) ordered mesostructures with large Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area and narrow pore size distribution (ca. 5 nm). It was found that the level of rutile phase in the mesoporous titanium oxide was related to the SO 4 2− concentration in the starting materials. Their photocatalytic hydrogen production was evaluated and compared. It is found that low rutile content is beneficial for a high catalytic activity. All samples demonstrate a better activity than commercial P25.