Preparation, characterization and photoactivity of TiO2 obtained by a reverse microemulsion route

Abstract

TiO2 was synthesized by a reverse microemulsion route. By using different water contents in the reverse microemulsion, we obtained three different materials named R=10, R=20 and R=30. The reverse microemulsion synthesis has the advantage that the kind of the crystalline titania structure obtained may be changed by simply modifying the water content in the microemulsion. The synthesized materials were characterized by nitrogen adsorption, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. Methylene blue (MB) was used as testing dye; we studied the pH effect and catalyst dosage in the MB photodegradation. The degradation kinetics was also studied. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.