Low temperature and aqueous sol–gel deposit of photocatalytic active nanoparticulate TiO2

TiO2 nanoparticles with a mesoporous structure have been synthesised by a one step, simple, efficient, low temperature (100 °C) and environmentally friendly sol–gel process using ammonium bromide salts as catalysts. They have been characterised by FT-IR, TGA/TDA, XRD, BET and TEM techniques. Their photocatalytic activities are compared to highly porous commercial TiO2 in liquid/solid and gas/solid systems. Deposition of a uniform crystalline TiO2 coating with high adhesivity was achieved on organic substrates such as cellulose fibers.