Preparation of mesoporous hollow spheres of silica and titania using melamine formaldehyde microspheres as templates

Mesoporous hollow spheres consisting of SiO2 or TiO2 were prepared with melamine formaldehyde microspheres as a core template and hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide as a pore directing agent via a sol-gel process and subsequent calcination. The adsorption property of SiO2 hollow spheres and photocatalytic degradation activity of TiO2 hollow spheres to methylene blue (MB) were investigated, respectively. The structure, morphology, composition and optical properties of the resultant hollow sphere were characterized. The results show that the hollow spheres with the diameter of 300 nm, the relative large specific surface area and the mesoporous shell can be obtained. The SiO2 hollow spheres show an intensive adsorption performance to MB. The TiO2 hollow spheres have the superior photocatalytic degradation property under an ultraviolet light equipped. ©, 2015, Kuei Suan Jen Hsueh Pao/Journal of the Chinese Ceramic Society. All right reserved.