Synthesis of TiO₂ Nanoparticles and Good Dispersion on SBA-15 Mesoporous Materials for High Photocatalytic Activity

This paper reports the preparation of TiO2 based photocatalysts from two different types of silica materials, silica gel and SBA-15. This study examines the factors that affect the photocatalytic activity of catalyst composite, such as types of silica support, TiO2 loading, and pH value of dye solution. The samples were characterized by XRD, UV-vis, FTIR, FE-SEM, TEM, TGA, and surface area analyzer. Experimental results show that TiO2 supported on silica gel or SBA-15 materials can effectively enhance photocatalytic reaction than unsupported catalysts. The TiO2/SBA-15 materials have larger pore volume and pore size compared to TiO2/silica-gel materials, which exhibited a much higher adsorption and photodegradation activity. The resulting mesoporous TiO2/SBA-15 had a high surface area of 574 m2/g, pore volume of 1.30 cm3/g, pore size of about 8.0 nm, and mesopore content as high as 100%. The results of this study will be useful in enhancing photocatalytic efficiency of TiO2 nanocatalyst materials.