Synthesis, characterization and enhanced photoconductivity from a mesoporous titania on dye doping

New wormhole-like mesoporous TiO2 material has been synthesized through a convenient sol–gel method in the presence of a Schiff base secondary amine hexadecyl-2-pyrrole-methylamine (HPMA) containing chelating donor sites as template or structure directing agent (SDA). SDA molecules can be easily removed from the composite to generate mesoporosity and upon removal of the SDA molecule, this mesoporous TiO2 material showed very high surface area (480 ± 10 m2/g) with an average pore diameter of 2.57 ± 0.05 nm. When Rose Bengal dye is entrapped inside the nanopores of this material, it showed a drastic enhancement (ca. 40-folds) in the photoconductivity vis-à-vis mesoporous TiO2 alone under white light illumination.