A novel acid-base catalyzed sol-gel synthesis of highly active mesoporous TiO₂ photocatalysts

A new synthetic strategy based on the acid-base catalyzed sol-gel method was developed for the preparation of a series of mesoporous TiO₂ nanoparticles. A key feature of the method involves a gradual change in pH (0.8-9) during the sol-gel transition, which guarantees easy introduction of mesoporosity without relying on the well-established sonochemical or template approach. In addition, this method leads to the exclusive formation of the anatase phase stable enough to the calcination temperature up to 600°C. The physicochemical properties of the particles in the series were characterized by various spectroscopic and analytical techniques such as wide-angle XRD, SAXRD, BET surface area, FE-SEM, TEM, FT-IR, TGA, and XPS. The photocatalytic efficiency of these materials was investigated for the oxidation of toluene under UV-irradiation. All but T-ad in the series exhibited high photocatalytic activity pushing the reaction into completion within 3 h. The reaction followed the first order kinetics, and the rate reaches as high as 3.9 × 10 ^-2/min which exceeds the one with the commercially available Degussa P-25 by a factor of 3.2. When comparison is made among the catalysts, the reactivity increases with increase in the calcination temperature which in turn increases the crystallinity of the anatase phase, thus revealing the following rate orders: T-3 < T-4 < T-5 < T-6.