Abstract:
Nano-porous photocatalyst TiO
2-SiO
2 binary semiconductor aerogels were prepared by the sol-gel method with Ti(OC
4H
9)
4 and Si(OC
2H
5)
4 as the precursors and by supercritical drying of ethanol. The influence of ethanol, water and the mole ratio of TiO
2 and SiO
2 on the gelation process was investigated. The microstructure of the TiO
2-SiO
2 binary semiconductor aerogel was also tested by using BET、XRD、SEM . The photocatalytic activity of TiO
2-SiO
2 binary semiconductor aerogels was characterized by measuring degradation of phoenol in aqueous suspension. The results showed that the TiO
2-SiO
2 binary aerogels had high surface area(523.8m
2g
-1 )and the diameter of their skeletal particles is 30-50 nm. Compared with titania powder(in the form of anatase and particle diameter 3-5
μm), it was proved that the TiO
2-SiO
2 binary semiconductor aerogel with TiO
2:SiO
2 mole ratio 1:1 had the highest efficiency in the photocatalytic oxidation of phenol under the same experimental conditions.