Preparation of porous TiO2 using eggshell membrane as template and its photocatalytic activity

Eggshell membrane (ESM) has been employed as a natural biotemplate. Using tetrabutyl titanate as titanium resource and ethanol as solvent, through a two-step infiltration process based on the surface chemistry and biochemistry interactions involved in organic-inorganic interface, titanium ion evenly combined with biomembrane by controlling impregnant pH value. And then the hierarchical fibrous nano-porous anatase titanium dioxide was prepared after high temperature calcination. Unique bio-morphic microstructures with interwoven networks were synthesized and characterized by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM), High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray Diffraction Spectroscopy (XRD) and so forth. Titania was characterized by repetitious networks consisting of the porous hollow tubes with inner diameter of ca. 500 nm and thickness of about 300 nm. The tube wall was studded with piled pores which had 1 similar to 5 nm aperture. While the concentration of phenol solution is 20mg/L, catalyst amount 0.2 g/L, the reaction had a higher decoloring rate under an ultraviolet Hg lamp irradiation, the decoloring rate can reach over 90% after 120 min. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.