Fabrication of titania tubules with high surface area and well-developed mesostructural walls by surfactant-mediated templating method

Titania microtubules with high specific surface areas and well-developed framework mesopores forming the tubular walls by a surfactant-mediated template in the sol-gel process were fabricated in a laurylamine hydrochloride (LAHC)hetra-n-butyl-orthotitanate (TBOT) system. The outer diameter and the wall thickness of titania microtubules are 2-8 and 0.2-2 mum, respectively. The walls of the microtubules consisted of nanochannels with exceptionally uniform pore size. This technique is a convenient and facile procedure for fabricating hierarchical ordered hollow tubules. The possible mechanism of the formation of the microtubules in the present system was discussed in detail.