Preparation, Characterization and Photocatalytic Activity of Mesoporous TiO_2-SiO_2 Composite Doped with Platinum

Titania-silica mesoporous materials were synthesized by the improved homogeneous precipitation method with tetraethyl silicate and titanium isopropoxide as precursors and CTAB as the structure-directing agent. The materials were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, XPS, nitrogen sorption and so on. The mesoporous composite with Ti/Si molar ratio of 1/2 shows a narrow distributing pore diameter and large special surface area of 609m2/g. Compared with pure nano-TiO2 particles at the same titania loading, the composite exhibits higher photocatalytic activity in the degradation of methyl orange. The photocatalytic activity is greatly improved by doping platinum with an appropriate loading.