Facile preparation of TiO2 nanocrystals inserted in monodispersed mesoporous SiO2 nanospheres for enhanced photocatalytic activity

TiO 2 nanocrystals are inserted in the pores of monodispersed mesoporous SiO 2 nanospheres with 20–35 nm diameter by a facile two-step method involving vacuum-rotary evaporation and subsequent calcination. Characterization by XRD, TEM, EDX, FT-IR and N 2 sorption techniques suggests that, the pores of the mesoporous SiO 2 nanosphere can effectively stabilize the anatase phase of TiO 2 nanocrystals with size about 6 nm even at high temperature of 750 °C. The photocatalytic activities of the samples with different TiO 2 loading amount were evaluated by the degradation of Rhodamine B dye in aqueous solution under UV-light irradiation. It is found that photocatalytic efficiencies of these materials are much better than commercial P25. Where the sample with TiO 2 loading of 43 % exhibits the highest photocatalytic efficiencies with complete degradation of Rhodamine B within 32 min, which is attributed to the balance between high surface area and suitable TiO 2 loading amount.