Hydrothermal preparation of porous materials from a rutile–quartz concentrate

Synthesis of porous TiO2 from a Yarega rutile–quartz concentrate by using a simple low cost hydrothermal method is reported. Samples were characterized by the X-ray diffraction (XRD) method, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis to determine the specific surface area. The as-synthesized porous material contains 96.95 wt% TiO2 with rutile structure and is characterized by high surface area −5.0–5.5 m2/g. Formation of porous materials may result from the dissolution of impurities from the rutile matrix of the starting rutile–quartz concentrate during the hydrothermal process.