Highly ordered mesoporous titania with semi crystalline framework templated by large or small nonionic surfactants

Abstract

A relatively simple and effective route has been developed for the synthesis of mesoporous titania with a high mesopore ordering and thermal stability in short synthetic period (3 days). Mesoporous TiO2 has been synthesized by a surfactant templating process that combined the evaporation-induced self-assembly method, the liquid crystal templating pathway and basic atmosphere treatment. The developed method can be applied with either large or small surfactants, and in particular with fluorinated ones. The transformation of the amorphous titania walls into nanosized anatase walls occurs without the mesostructure collapse. Moreover, the pore size can be easily tailored by changing the surfactant.