Utilization of Dammar-Gum as a Soft Template in Titania Synthesis for Photocatalyst

Abstract

A new synthetic method for the preparation of titania (TiO2) was developed. The synthesis involved utilizing dammar gum as the natural soft template, chloroform (CHCl3) as the reaction solvent, and titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) as the main precursor. The results show that the methodology described herein is an efficient alternative for the preparation of titania with larger surface areas up to 58.1 m(2) g(-1) for TiO2 from the TTIP-dammar gum/CHCl3/H2O reaction system, and 56.2 m(2) g(-1) for TiO2 from the TTIP-dammar gum/CHCl3 reaction system. Both surface areas are larger than that of the pure TTIP/CHCl3/H2O product (5.56 m(2) g(-1)). In addition, the as-prepared TiO2, which uses dammar gum as a soft template, exhibited higher photocatalytic activity toward rhodamine B degradation compared to the as-prepared TiO2 in the absence of dammar gum.