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Facile Synthesis of Yolk–Shell Nanostructured Photocatalyst with Improved Adsorption Properties and Molecular‐Sieving Properties
Author(s) -
Kuwahara Yasutaka,
Sumida Yuki,
Fujiwara Kensei,
Yamashita Hiromi
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
chemcatchem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.497
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1867-3899
pISSN - 1867-3880
DOI - 10.1002/cctc.201600505
Subject(s) - photocatalysis , materials science , adsorption , chemical engineering , porosity , mesoporous material , nanotechnology , nanoparticle , catalysis , organic chemistry , chemistry , composite material , engineering
Abstract A novel and facile method to fabricate yolk–shell nanostructured photocatalysts consisting of TiO 2 nanoparticles (NPs) as the core and spherical hollow silica as the shell was developed. In the fabrication, commercial TiO 2 NPs were directly incorporated into hollow silica spheres by utilizing oil‐in‐water (O/W) microemulsions as a template, followed by heat treatment to create a void space between the TiO 2 core and the silica shell region. The synthesized yolk–shell nanostructured TiO 2 @SiO 2 acts as an efficient photocatalyst with both improved adsorption properties and photocatalytic efficiency, which far outperformed those of naked TiO 2 owing to the ability of the porous silica shell to adsorb/enrich small organic reactants (acetaldehyde and 2‐propanol) inside the void space and efficient transportation to the adjacent active TiO 2 core. Comparative photocatalytic tests using a large organic molecule (conalbumin) revealed that the porous silica shell with an average pore diameter of 2.0 nm endowed this material with a molecular‐sieving property, demonstrating its potential application in combination with organic support materials.