Photocatalytic activity of TiO2–SBA-15 under UV and visible light

Supported nanocrystalline titanium dioxide has been prepared by a sol–gel method through the use of mesoporous silica materials SBA-15. The synthesized titania/silica composites were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and UV–visible spectroscopy. The TiO2–SBA-15 composites presented in this study showed much higher photodegradation ability of methylene blue (MB) than commercial pure TiO2 nanoparticles Degussa P-25 using different light sources (UV, visible and solar light). Experimental results indicate that the photocatalytic activity of titania/silica mixed materials depends on the adsorption ability of composite and the photocatalytic activity of the titania, and the highest activity was observed on the sample with Ti/Si ratio is about 8.