Synthesis of mesoporous-assembled TiO2 nanocrystals by a modified urea-aided sol-gel process and their outstanding photocatalytic H2 production activity

✍ Scribed by Singto Sakulkhaemaruethai; Thammanoon Sreethawong

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 573 KB
• Volume: 36
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0360-3199
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.03.005

✦ Synopsis

Mesoporous-assembled TiO 2 nanocrystals with very high photocatalytic H 2 production activity were synthesized through a modified sol-gel process with the aid of urea as mesopore-directing agent, heat-treated under various calcination temperatures, and assessed for their photocatalytic H 2 production activity via water splitting reaction. The resulting mesoporous-assembled TiO 2 nanocrystals were systematically characterized by N 2 adsorptionedesorption analysis, surface area and pore size distribution analyses, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The experimental results showed that the photocatalytic H 2 production activity of the synthesized mesoporous-assembled TiO 2 nanocrystal calcined at 500 C, which possessed very narrow pore size distribution, was extraordinarily higher than that of the commercially available P-25 TiO 2 and ST-01 TiO 2 powders.