The Effect of Surfactant Chain Length and Type on the Photocatalytic Activity of Mesoporous TiO2 Nanoparticles Obtained via Modified Sol-Gel Process

Mesoporous amorphous and nanocrystalline titanium dioxide were prepared by simple and environmental friendly modified Sol-Gel method using cationic (C14TAB, C16TAB, C18TAB) and nonionic (Plantacare UP K55) surfactant as pore forming agent. The obtained particles were characterized by BET, TEM, FT-IR and XRD techniques. The effect of cationic surfactant chain length and type of template on the photocatalytic activity of as prepared TiO2 nanoparticles were investigated by the degradation of rhodamine B in water solution under UV irradiation. The results indicated that this process was well described by the pseudo-first order kinetic model. All the prepared titanium dioxide particles with cationic and nonionic surfactant exhibited higher performance for rhodamine B photo-degradation. The sample with large pore size and small particle size which obtained by using C18TAB surfactant showed high photocatalytic activity compared with the others samples and commercial P25. The mechanism of photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B was proposed based on the degradation products determined by GC/MS and LC/MS. The performance of the recycled TiO2 as photocatalyst was investigated.