Synthesis and Adsorbent Properties of Silica-Titanate Nanoarchitectures Produced by Unrolling Titanate Tubular Sheets

Abstract

Microporous and mesoporous nanocomposites based on silica and titanate are obtained by unrolling sodic titanate nanotubes. The opened titanate sheets are then spaced by introducing surfactant species via ion exchange and introducing silica species between the unrolled titanate nanotubes. The characterization indicates an organic−inorganic hybrid intermediate resulting from the surfactant in perpendicular accommodation between the open tubular sheets. Stabilizing the silica spacers resulted in a microporous and mesoporous nanoarchitecture forming voids between the unrolled titanate sheets with a higher specific surface (714 m 2 g −1 ) than that of the pristine titanate nanotube (58 m 2 g −1 ). The adsorptive properties of the synthesized silica−titanate nanoarchitectures are reported using Methylene Blue (MB) and Rhodamine B (RhB) dyes. It was revealed that the adsorption capacity against RhB is substantially increased for the nanocomposite (65%), compared to titanate nanotubes (13%). The kinetic analysis suggests that the pseudo-second-order kinetic model best describes the adsorption dynamics. Freundlich adsorption isotherm best fits the adsorption data, which suggests that adsorption does not occur onto uniform sites but in multilayers onto nanocomposites.

Zeolite Crystal Engineering

“…In zeolite catalysis, many reactions require the introduction of different metals, either as framework or extra-framework species, to tune the Lewis and/or Brønsted acidity of the zeolitic materials. There has been a substantial increase in the number of studies focused on synthesizing and testing Ti-zeolite catalysts . The most commonly studied is TS-1 (MFI-type zeolite) .…”

“…There has been a substantial increase in the number of studies focused on synthesizing and testing Tizeolite catalysts. 15 The most commonly studied is TS-1 (MFItype zeolite). 16 However, there are also efforts to introduce titanium in other frameworks (e.g., MSE-type zeolite).…”