Inorganic alkaline-sols as precursors for rapid synthesis of ETS-10 microporous titanosilicates and their photocatalytic reforming of methanol under visible-light irradiation

Pristine ETS-10 and anion-modified ETS-10 microporous titanosilicate catalysts were successfully synthesised by using inorganic alkaline-sols as precursors for the first time. Furthermore, use of halogen/organic-free medium and short time synthesis (within 5 h) makes this methodology even more versatile and efficient. We have noticed that, presence of desired amount of alkali in synthesis gel promotes rapid crystallisation, opposed to huge alkali used in classical synthesis. The UV–vis diffuse reflectance (DR) spectrum of orange-red vis/ETS-10 catalyst shows complete shift of absorption edge compared to pristine ETS-10 and commercial N-doped TiO2. It was found that vis/ETS-10 catalyst showed ca. 8.79 times higher relative photonic efficiency for photocatalytic methanol reforming as compared with commercial N-doped TiO2. The observed higher photocatalytic efficiency of vis/ETS-10 catalyst might be attributed to visible light absorbing anionic species (S, C and N) and better semiconducting property of one-dimensional titanium chains within zeotype structure.