Al-doped TiO2 mesoporous materials: synthesis and photodegradation properties

Aluminium-doped TiO2 mesoporous material was successfully fabricated by solid-state reaction with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as a template agent and tetrabutyl orthotitanate as a precursor. The characteristic results from low-angle and wide-angle X-ray diffraction, high resolution transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy, N2 absorption–desorption, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, ultraviolet visible light spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) clearly showed that the mesoporous architecture of aluminium-doped TiO2 was composed of crystal wall and micro-/mesopore formed gradually by the mesopore degradation of anatase TiO2, and aluminium had been doped into the framework of anatase TiO2. The mesoporous Al-doped TiO2 material, not only possessed high thermal stability hexahedral mesostructure, large BET surface area and narrow distribution of pore size, but also showed excellent photodegradation behavior for Congo Red. Furthermore the medium UV–Vis absorption peak of mesoporous aluminium-doped TiO2 in the range 210–370 nm was the absorption peak of aluminium oxide nanoparticles locating the extraframework of TiO2. A small quantity of aluminium doped into anatase TiO2 could obviously improve photodegradation activity, and the photodegradation activity of aluminium-doped TiO2 was higher than that of pure TiO2.