Synthesis of Well-Ordered Mesoporous Titania with Tunable Phase Content and High Photoactivity

Using TiCl 4 and Ti(OBu) 4 as the precursors and Pluronic P123 as the template, mesoporous titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) is successfully prepared by the nonhydrolytic evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) method with a three-dimensional mesostructure obtained. X-ray powder diffraction patterns (XRD) show that the pore wall is composed of both anatase and rutile phases. Transmission electron micrograph observations (TEM) reveal a well-ordered open-pore mesostructure. N 2 adsorption analysis exhibits a narrow pore size distribution. Photodegradation of phenol shows that the sample has a better photoactivity than Degussa P25. Further investigations on the effect of the “acid−base pair” find that by changing the molar ratio of TiCl 4 /Ti(OBu) 4, both the pore texture and phase composition can be well-controlled. A high content of TiCl 4 is considered to favor the formation of regular mesostructures and a proper weight ratio of anatase/rutile as well, which can finally affect the photocatalytic efficiency of the sample