Easy access to highly crystalline mesoporous transition-metal oxides with controllable uniform large pores by using block copolymers synthesized via atom transfer radical polymerization

We report the synthesis of highly crystalline and thermally stable mesoporous titanium oxide and niobium oxide with uniform and controllable pores by employing laboratory-made polystyrene-b-poly(ethylene oxide)s (PS-b-PEOs) as structure-directing agents for combined assembly of soft and hard chemistries (CASH). The structure-directing agent PS-b-PEO has been simply synthesized via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) method. With the increase of molecular weight of PS-b-PEO, the pore size of TiO2 has been tuned in the range of 14.9–20.7 nm. The highly crystalline CASH-PS-TiO2 exhibited promising photocatalytic activity in both hydrogen evolution and methylene blue (MB) degradation compared to conventional TiO2 templated by Pluronic P123. Notably, the approach used in this research combines the advantages of CASH and ATRP and can hence be easily adopted by researchers without any prior experience in polymer synthesis.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slideHighlights► We report the simple synthesis of highly crystalline mesoporous TiO2 and Nb2O5. ► Polystyrene-b-poly(ethylene oxide)s were used as structure-directing agent. ► Pore size was tuned by changing block length of polystyrene. ► The prepared TiO2 exhibited promising photocatalytic activity. ► The approach used in this research can be easily adopted any researchers.