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Nanostructured Silica–Titania Hybrid using Dendritic Fibrous Nanosilica as a Photocatalyst
Author(s) -
Bayal Nisha,
Singh Rustam,
Polshettiwar Vivek
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
chemsuschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.412
H-Index - 157
eISSN - 1864-564X
pISSN - 1864-5631
DOI - 10.1002/cssc.201700135
Subject(s) - photocatalysis , catalysis , chemical engineering , materials science , mesoporous material , deposition (geology) , morphology (biology) , nanotechnology , specific surface area , phase (matter) , nanoneedle , nanostructure , chemistry , organic chemistry , sediment , genetics , paleontology , engineering , biology
A new method has been developed to fabricate active TiO 2 photocatalysts by tuning the morphology of the catalyst support. A sustainable solution‐phase TiO 2 deposition on dendritic fibrous nanosilica (DFNS) protocol is developed, which is better than the complex and expensive atomic layer deposition technique. In general, catalytic activity decreases with an increased TiO 2 loading on conventional mesoporous silica because of the loss of the surface area caused by the blocking of pores. Notably, in the case of the dendritic fibrous nanosilica KCC‐1 as a support, because of its open fibrous morphology, even at the highest TiO 2 loading, a relatively large amount of surface area remained intact. This improved the accessibility of active sites, which increased the catalytic performance of the KCC‐1/TiO 2 photocatalyst. KCC‐1‐supported TiO 2 is a superior photocatalyst in terms of H 2 generation (26.4 mmol gTiO2−1 h −1 ) under UV light. This study may provide a new direction for photocatalyst development through the morphology control of the support.