A One-Pot Approach to Hierarchically Nanoporous Titania Hollow Microspheres with High Photocatalytic Activity

A simple one-step template method for the fabrication of crystalline titania (TiO 2 ) hollow microspheres, based on template-directed deposition and in situ template-sacrificial dissolution, is developed in pure water by using SiO 2 microspheres as templates and TiF 4 as the precursor at 60 °C. The wall thickness and size of the TiO 2 hollow spheres can be controlled by adjusting the concentration of the precursor TiF 4 and the size of the SiO 2 spheres, respectively. The prepared TiO 2 hollow spheres exhibit hierarchically nanoporous structures and a high photocatalytic activity. This hierarchically micromeso-macrostructured TiO 2 hollow microspheres should find various potential applications in photocatalysis, catalysis, solar cells, and separation and purification processes.