Photocatalytic degradation of formaldehyde using mesoporous TiO2 prepared by evaporation-induced self-assembly

The mesoporous Ti O2 has been synthesized by evaporation induced self assembly(EISA) method. The thermogravimetric/differential scanning calorimetric(TG/DSC), X-ray diffraction(XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy(HR-TEM) and N2 adsorption desorption and adsorption are used to study the effects of the synthesized process condition on the microstructure of the as-synthesized mesoporous Ti O2. The photocatalytic performances of as-synthesized samples are evaluated by the degradation of the formaldehyde under ultraviolet light irradiations. The results demonstrate that the as-synthesized mesoporous Ti O2 are anatase with the uniform size about 20-40 nm. The sample is prepared using cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide(CTAB) as the template with average pore size distribution of 8.12 nm, specific surface area of 68.47 m2/g and pore volume of 0.213 m L/g. The samples show decomposition of formaldehyde 95.8% under ultraviolet light irradiations for 90 min. These results provide a basic experimental process for preparation mesoporous Ti O2, which will posses a broad prospect in terms of the applications in improving indoor air quality.