Nanostructured Silica-Titania Hybrid using Dendritic Fibrous Nanosilica as a Photocatalyst.

A new method has been developed to fabricate active TiO photocatalysts by tuning the morphology of the catalyst support. A sustainable solution-phase TiO deposition on dendritic fibrous nanosilica (DFNS) protocol is developed, which is better than the complex and expensive atomic layer deposition technique. In general, catalytic activity decreases with an increased TiO loading on conventional mesoporous silica because of the loss of the surface area caused by the blocking of pores.

Size and Fiber Density Controlled Synthesis of Fibrous Nanosilica Spheres (KCC-1).

We report a facile protocol for the synthesis of fibrous nano-silica (KCC-1) with controllable size and fiber density. In this work, we have shown that the particle size, fiber density, surface area and pore volume of KCC-1 can be effectively controlled and tuned by changing various reaction parameters, such as the concentrations of urea, CTAB, 1-pentanol, reaction time, temperature, solvent ratio, and even outside stirring time. For the first time, we were able to control the particle size ranging from as small as 170 nm to as large as 1120 nm.