Nanostructured silica–titania hybrid using dendritic fibrous nanosilica as a photocatalyst

Abstract

A new method has been developed to fabricate active TiO₂ photocatalysts by tuning the morphology of the catalyst support. A sustainable solution-phase TiO₂ 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 TiO₂ 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 TiO₂ 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/TiO₂ photocatalyst. KCC-1-supported TiO₂ is a superior photocatalyst in terms of H₂ 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.