Ordered mesoporous tungsten oxide and titanium oxide composites and their photocatalytic degradation behavior

Highly ordered mesoporous WO3/TiO2 (MWTs) composite materials with tunable chemical compositions were obtained by a surfactant template-assisted evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) processes. The structure properties of the MWT materials were characterized by small angle XRD, TEM and N2 sorption. The resultant materials showed large amount of ordered mesopores and high chemical homogeneity. With increasing crystallinity degree, the order degrees of mesostructure turned worse gradually. The MWT hybrids exhibited excellent visible light response due to the addition of WO3 with narrow band gap. Photocatalytic performances of the MWT samples were determined by measuring the photo-degradation of rhodamine B dye and phenol under simulated solar light irradiation. The effect of material parameters such as surface area, crystallinity and chemical compositions in the binary heterostructured system on photocatalytic performance were discussed in details.