CTAB-assisted sol-microwave method for fast synthesis of mesoporous TiO2 photocatalysts for photocatalytic conversion of glucose to value-added sugars

Abstract Fabrication technique is an important factor for development of catalysts. Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) is one of efficient photocatalysts. In this work, we firstly report the fabrication of TiO 2 nanoparticles by sol-microwave method with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) surfactant. Absence of surfactant, microwave treatment significantly reduced the cluster sizes of TiO 2 , but high aggregations of TiO 2 particles were observed. CTAB has great impact on morphology, cluster size and mesoporous structure of TiO 2 . Therefore, surface area of TiO 2 synthesized by sol-microwave method with 0.108 M CTAB increased from 15.97 to 37.60 m 2 /g. Photocatalytic activity of TiO 2 was tested via the glucose conversion to produce value-added chemicals (gluconic acid, xylitol, arabinose and formic acid). It was found that surface area, mesoporous structure and pore size of TiO 2 are crucial properties for glucose conversion and product distribution. From the reaction test, 0.108 M CTAB/MW-TiO 2 achieved the highest glucose conversion (62.28%).