Fabrication and characterizations of mesoporous TiO2 and SiO2/TiO2 composite with high photocatalytic activity using a new Gemini surfactant

Abstract

In this paper, mesoporous rod-like SiO2/TiO2 (m-SiO2/TiO2) and mesoporous sphere-like TiO2 (m-TiO2) have been prepared by using a new type Gemini surfactant containing carbonyl groups (GS-A, [(CnH2n + 1)(CH3)2N+(CH2)2-O2C-(CH2)4-CO2-(CH2)2N+(CH3)2(CnH2n + 1)] · 2Br−, n = 12) as template at pH ∼ 6 at room temperature. The products are characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and N2 adsorption-desorption. The results indicate that anatase TiO2 exists in both samples and m-SiO2/TiO2 has a higher surface area (741.13 m2/g) than m-TiO2. Moreover, as-synthesized samples show excellent photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methyl red under UV irradiation.