Titania-Silica Materials for Enhanced Photocatalysis.
Mesoporous titania-organosilica nanoparticles comprised of anatase nanocrystals crosslinked with organosilica moieties have been prepared by direct co-condensation of a titania precursor, tetrabuthylortotitanate (TBOT), with two organosilica precursors, 1,4-bis(triethoxysilyl) benzene (BTEB) and 1,2-bis(triethoxysilyl) ethane (BTEE), in mild conditions and in the absence of surfactant. These hybrid materials show both high surface areas (200-360 m(2)  g(-1) ) and pore volumes (0.3 cm(3)  g(-1) ) even after calcination, and excellent photoactivity in the degradation of rhodamine 6G and in the partial oxidation of propene under UV irradiation, especially after the calcination of the samples. During calcination, there is a change in the Ti(IV) coordination and an increase in the content of SiOTi moieties in comparison with the uncalcined materials, which seems to be responsible for the enhanced photocatalytic activity of hybrid titania-silica materials as compared to both uncalcined samples and the control TiO2 .
Molecular Nanotechnology Laboratory, Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Alicante, Carretera San Vicente s/n, 03690 Alicante (Spain) www.nanomol.es.|Current adress: ICPEES - ECPM, 25 rue Becquerel, 67087 Strasbourg Cedex 2 (France).
Marisa
M
Rico-Santacruz
Molecular Nanotechnology Laboratory, Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Alicante, Carretera San Vicente s/n, 03690 Alicante (Spain) www.nanomol.es.
Elena
E
Serrano
"Schiavello-Grillone" Photocatalysis Group, Dipartimento di Energia, Ingegneria dell'informazione e modelli Matematici (DEIM), Università di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128 Palermo (Italy).
Giuseppe
G
Marcì
"Schiavello-Grillone" Photocatalysis Group, Dipartimento di Energia, Ingegneria dell'informazione e modelli Matematici (DEIM), Università di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128 Palermo (Italy).
Elisa I
EI
García-López
Molecular Nanotechnology Laboratory, Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Alicante, Carretera San Vicente s/n, 03690 Alicante (Spain) www.nanomol.es. j.garcia@ua.es.
Javier
J
García-Martínez
organosilane; photocatalysis; propylene epoxidation; sol-gel process; titania-silica