Low-toxic gelcasting of bulk porous silica with bi-modal pore structure and its application in TiO2 photocatalysts

• Industrial waste was used as a raw material for the preparation of silica supporter.
• The as-prepared silica supporter has novel bi-modal pore structure.
• Anatase TiO2 hydrosol with high photocatalytic activity was prepared by peptization.
• Porous silica supported TiO2 catalysts show excellent photocatalytic properties.
• The as-prepared catalysts avoid disadvantages of direct use of nano TiO2.

Bulk porous silica with bi-modal pore structure was successfully prepared by low-toxic aqueous gelcasting using egg white and glutinous rice flour as foamers and industrial waste as silica raw material. Anatase TiO2 hydrosol with high photocatalytic activity was prepared by a water peptization method. The bulk porous silica-supported TiO2 catalysts as prepared by surface adsorption method showed excellent photocatalytic properties, with advantages of both porous silica supporter and TiO2 hydrosol, and did not require direct the use of nano TiO2 crystallites and can be readily and practically used in the degradation of pollutants, environmental remediation, and other applications.

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