Toward Tunable Adsorption Properties, Structure, and Crystallinity of Titania Obtained by Block Copolymer and Scaffold-Assisted Templating

Abstract

Nanostructured titania and composite titania materials were synthesized for the first time by a one-pot strategy in an aqueous solution containing Pluronic P123 block copolymer and suitable precursors. The strategy can be considered as more facile, environmentally friendly, and less expensive as compared to the existing ones that require use of organic solvents. In the case of composites, silica and alumina particles were used as a structure protecting scaffold and composite components. This synthesis strategy allowed tuning of adsorption and structural properties of the resulting materials; namely, the specific surface area was varied from 84 to 250 m² g^–1, total pore volume from 0.11 to 0.46 cm³ g^–1, and the pore width from 5.6 to 11.2 nm. All samples studied but one showed exclusively anatase phase, and the composites obtained with silica scaffold showed tunable degree of crystallinity. The proposed approach to tailoring the surface and structure properties of titania is especially important for the development of high performance materials for photocatalysis, lithium-based batteries, and dye-sensitized solar cells