Synthesis and photocatalytic activity of mesoporous TiO2 nanoparticle using biological renewable resource of un-modified lignin as a template

Mesoporous TiO 2 was synthesized by a hydrolysis precipitation method with the utilization of the biological renewable resource of lignin as template and TiCl 4 as reactant. The photocatalytic activity of TiO 2 was investigated by the degradation of phenol under UV light irradiation. The microstructure, crystallinity , powder characteristic, and chemical bonding of the catalyst were analyzed. The 500 °C-calcined TiO 2 had average crystallite size of about 11.1 nm and a mesoporous structure with specific area of 165.8 m 2 /g and pore volume of 0.312 cm 3 /g. The results showed that TiO 2 synthesized with lignin template exhibited high photocatalytic activity, which can be attributed to the electronegativity and the network skeleton of lignin to uniformly distribute the TiO 2 precursor for forming TiO 2 mesoporous particles. The mechanism for the improved photodegradation of the lignin-assisted TiO 2 was proposed.