Rice-Husk-Templated Hierarchical Porous TiO2/SiO2 for Enhanced Bacterial Removal

To further enhance the bacterial removal capability, we synthesize a biotemplated hierarchical porous material coupling chemical components and hierarchical microstructure, which is derived from rice husk. The results show that the chemical components and hierarchical microstructure of the prepared material could both be factors in enhancing the bacterial removal capability. On the basis of the experimental results, we propose a hypothetical enhanced bacterial removal mechanism model of the prepared material. Furthermore, we propose a hypothetical method of inferring bacterial physical removal effects of samples by their dye adsorption results. Also, the hypothetical method has been proven to be reasonable by the experimental results. This work provides a new paradigm for bacterial removal and can contribute to the development of new functional materials for enhanced bacterial removal in the future.