Abstract
The supramolecular assembly of ionic/non-ionic surfactants has been extensively employed as a template or structure directing agent (SDA) in the synthesis of a large variety of mesoporous materials over the past one and a half decades. Herein, we report the first highly efficient synthesis strategy for self-assembled mesoporous TiO2 materials with well-defined crystal morphologies using sodium salicylate as a template. Mesoporous TiO2 nanoparticles showed a drastically enhanced photoelectrochemical response under visible light irradiation after entrapping a photosensitizer molecule (dye) inside the mesopores. The efficient synthesis strategy and enhanced photoresponse of these mesoporous TiO2 materials could facilitate the design of other porous semiconductor oxides and their applications in photon-to-electron conversion processes.