Preparation and photocatalytic activity of multi-modally macro/mesoporous titania

Hierarchically disorder sponge-like macro/mesoporous titania was prepared by adding distilled water dropwise to a coating of tetrabutyl titanate. The results reveal that the un-calcined samples show obvious photocatalytic activity and multi-modal pore-size distribution. With increasing calcination temperatures, the photocatalytic activity and crystallinity increase. At 400A degrees C, the calcined sample shows the highest photocatalytic activity. Further increasing the calcination temperatures results in the decrease of photocatalytic activity due to the drastic decrease of specific surface areas. However, the 600A degrees C-calcined sample exhibits the highest specific photocatalytic activity due to high anatase crystallinity.