Carbon coated Au/TiO2 mesoporous microspheres: a novel selective photocatalyst

Abstract

Photocatalysts with desirable selectivity to transformation and purification of targeted pollutants are of great importance in water purification. Here, we demonstrate that selective photocatalysis can be realized by the assistance of gold-enhanced selective adsorption onto carbon-coated Au/TiO2 mesoporous microspheres (Au/TiO2@C-MM), which were prepared via a surfactant-assisted two-step method that involved the assembly of oleic acid-stabilized titania and gold nanoparticles into colloidal spheres in an emulsion using sodium dodecyl sulfate as a surfactant and the conversion of the surfactants into carbon under annealing in Ar. Due to the negatively charged amorphous carbon, the mesoporous structure, and the surface plasmon resonance absorption of the Au components, the Au/TiO2@C-MM shows enhanced charge- and size-selective adsorption properties, which enables the materials to have high selectivity in the photocatalytic process.