Fabrication and structural analysis of mesoporous silica-titania for environmental purification

Mesoporous silica can be applied to highly-efficient adsorbent and catalyst support to eliminate harmful chemical species because of its large surface area. Various metal oxides can be incorporated into the silica network to enhance the adsorption behavior and add catalytic functions. In this paper, we focused on the structure of mesoporous silica-titania and application to environmental gas purification. Mesoporous silica-titania was synthesized by a sol-gel method using metal alkoxides and organic template. Structural analyses, such as XRD, TEM, UV-Vis diffuse reflection spectroscopy and ²⁹Si-NMR, indicated that Ti was homogeneously incorporated into silica network at the small content, whereas separately deposited at the large content. The photocatalytic activity was determined by degradation of acetaldehyde under UV irradiation. The synthesized mesoporous silica-titania was effective for removal of acetaldehyde. The photocatalytic activity was enhanced at the large Ti content.