Abstract
Highly ordered 2D-hexagonal mesoporous titanium silicate Ti-SBA-15 materials (space group p6mm) have been synthesized hydrothermally in acidic medium employing amphiphilic tri-block copolymer, Pluronic F127 as structure directing agent. Samples are characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, FT IR spectroscopy, UV-visible diffuse reflectance measurements, N-2 adsorption/desorption and TG-DTA analysis. XRD and TEM results suggested the presence of highly ordered mesophase with hexagonal pore arrangements BET surface area for Ti-SBA-15 (924 m(2) g(-1)) is considerably higher than the pure silica SBA-15 (611 m(2) g(-1)) prepared following the same synthetic route UV-visible and FT-IR studies suggested the incorporation of mostly tetrahedral titanium (IV) species, along with some six-coordinated sites in the silicate network. This material shows very good H-2 adsorption capacity at higher pressure and excellent catalytic activity in the photocatalytic degradation of ecologically abundant dye methylene blue (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved.