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Microwave-assisted synthesis of mesoporous titania with increased crystallinity, specific surface area, and photocatalytic activity

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Abstract

Mesoporous titanium dioxide is a material finding its use in a wide range of applications. For many of these, it is important to achieve a high degree of crystallinity in the material. It is generally accepted that the use of the soft templating approach to synthesize mesoporous titania, results in a compromise between crystallinity and specific surface area due to thermal instability of the used templates. In this paper, we explore how the use of microwave irradiation can influence the crystallinity, specific surface area, and the electronic properties of mesoporous titania. Therefore, we combined microwave radiation with an evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) synthesis. We show that additional microwave treatment at carefully chosen synthesis steps can enhance the crystallinity with 20 % without causing significant loss of surface area (>360 m2/g). Surface photovoltage measurements were used to investigate the electronic properties. The photocatalytic activity of the samples was evaluated in aqueous media by following the degradation of an industrial dye, methylene blue, and the herbicide isoproturon under UV irradiation and in gaseous media looking at the degradation of acetaldehyde, a common indoor pollutant under UVA irradiation. In all cases, the microwave treatment results in more active materials.

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Acknowledgements

M. Meire and S. W. Verbruggen acknowledge the FWO-Flanders (Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders) for financial support. We want to thank T. Planckaert for the N2 sorption measurements, J. Watté for the XRD measurements, and professor K. De Buysser for the quantitative Rietveld refinements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Sol–gel Centre for Research on Inorganic Powders and Thin films Synthesis (SCRiPTS), Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281 (S3), 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Mieke Meire, Petra Lommens & Isabel Van Driessche

  2. Department of Bioscience Engineering, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020, Antwerp, Belgium

    Sammy W. Verbruggen & Silvia Lenaerts

  3. Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Centre for Ordered Materials, Organometallics and Catalysis (COMOC), Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281 (S3), 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Mieke Meire & Pascal Van Der Voort

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  1. Mieke Meire
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  2. Sammy W. Verbruggen
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  3. Silvia Lenaerts
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  4. Petra Lommens
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Correspondence to Isabel Van Driessche.

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Meire, M., Verbruggen, S.W., Lenaerts, S. et al. Microwave-assisted synthesis of mesoporous titania with increased crystallinity, specific surface area, and photocatalytic activity. J Mater Sci 51, 9822–9829 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-016-0215-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-016-0215-y

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