Highly Ordered Mesoporous TiO2-Fe2O3 Mixed Oxide Synthesized by Sol-Gel Pathway: An Efficient and Reusable Heterogeneous Catalyst for Dehalogenation Reaction

Highly ordered two-dimensional (2D) hexagonal TiO2-Fe2O3 mixed-oxide material MFT-1, which is composed of very tiny nanoparticles, is synthesized using sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) as a structure-directing agent. Interestingly, synthesis of an ordered mesophase was not possible using SDS as a template for mesoporous pure Fe2O3 or TiO2 phases. This mesoporous iron titanium mixed-oxide material has been characterized by powder Xray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), N-2 sorption, ultraviolet-visible light diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS) studies. N-2 sorption analysis revealed high surface areas (126-385 m(2) g(-1)) and narrow pore size distributions (3.1-3.4 nm) for different samples. UV-vis DRS spectra and wide-angle powder XRD patterns indicate that the material is composed of alpha-Fe2O3 and anatase TiO2 phases. This TiO2-Fe2O3 mixed-oxide material can act as a very efficient and reusable catalyst in the dehalogenation of aromatic chloride-, bromide-, and iodide-tolerating -F, -CN, -CH3, -OCH3 and -NO2 functional groups in the aromatic ring using 2-propanol as the dispersion medium.