Fabrication, structural morphology and photocatalytic activity of mesoporous TiO2prepared by fast sol–gel method

Mesoporous TiO2 photocatalysts were prepared by fast and classical sol–gel method respectively, while polyacrylamide was used as the template in the fast sol–gel route. Reaction time has been shortened from several days for classical sol–gel method to several hours for the fast sol–gel route. This is because of the polymerisation crosslink by hydrogen bonds between the polyacrylamide and hydrolysates of Ti alkoxides in the fast route. Only anatase TiO2 was obtained in the samples from the X-ray diffraction results. The results of transmission electron microscopy and N2 adsorption–desorption show that the photocatalysts have typical mesoporous structure and high surface areas. The surface areas of the samples prepared by the fast and classical sol–gel method are 154·7 and 102·6 m2 g−1 respectively. The photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange solution under UV light irradiation suggests that compared with the sample prepared via classical sol–gel method, mesoporous TiO2 prepared via fast sol–gel method exhibits higher photocatalytic activity.