Preparation of crystalline mesoporous Titania using furfuryl alcohol as polymerizable solvent

This paper presents the preparation of crystalline mesoporous titanias using furfuryl alcohol as a polymerizable solvent and titanium(IV) butoxide as a titania source. In the synthesis, furfuryl alcohol (FA) initially stabilized titanium(IV) butoxide through alcohol exchange reaction, and then highly crosslinked poly(furfuryl alcohol) (PFA), formed via thermal polymerization of FA, served as a temporary barrier to confine titania crystallization. The crystalline mesoporous titanias were finally obtained by removing PFA and organic surfactant. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and N-2-sorption were used to characterize the crystalline mesoporous titanias. The characterizations showed that the crystalline mesoporous titanias prepared under different conditions possessed pore sizes of 11.1-23.6 nm and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface areas of 26.1-109.9 m(2)/g. The pore size and surface area of crystalline mesoporous titania increased when the ratio of titanium(IV) butoxide to furfuryl alcohol decreased.