Preparation of surface-decorated mesoporous dendritic fibrous nanosilica/TiO2 for use in phenol degradation

Abstract

Surface-decorated three-dimensional dendritic fibrous nanosilica (DFNS)/TiO2 are novel materials that may be used in degrading organic pollutants. The DFNS nanosphere substrate was synthesized using a one-pot hydrothermal technique and polyethylene glycol-block-polypropylene glycol-block-polyethylene glycol/TiO2 (F127/TiO2) thin films were prepared via simple solvent volatilization-induced self-assembly method. The DFNS spheres and F127/TiO2 thin film were then combined and further annealed to obtain DFNS/TiO2 nanospheres. The as-synthesized DFNS mesoporous silica spheres exhibited unique fibrous morphologies, high specific surface areas, and uniform distributions. Standard characterization studies of the obtained mesoporous DFNS/TiO2 catalysts revealed that these catalysts were composed of amorphous SiO2 and anatase TiO2 with high specific surface areas of 525.3 m2∙g−1. The phenol degradation efficiencies of these catalysts were also studied. The amount of tetrabutyl titanate used as the Ti source was adjusted to obtain the optimal material with a first-order degradation rate constant of 0.0229 min−1. Thus, these surface modification DFNS/TiO2 materials display excellent catalytic properties, with potential applications in the fields of organic pollutant degradation and energy.