Sol-gel synthesis of TiO on CoO-coated sporopollenin exine microcapsules (SECs) and photocatalytic performance of new semiconductor heterojunction material.

In this study, a new approach was developed to prepare mesoporous hybrid TiO/CoO coated on Juglans sporopollenin exine microcapsules (SECs). TiO was synthesized on CoO-coated SECs used as substrate, by sol-gel method. The obtained semiconductor/semiconductor hetero-junction hybrid materials were characterized with X-ray diffractometry (XRD), UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), particle size distribution, specific surface area, and zeta potential measurements.