Preparation and characterization of porous TiO2 with La2O3 load

The porous TiO2 were prepared by the sol-gel method and via urea-formaldehyde resins templates route from commercial TiOSO4. And porous TiO2 were sintered for 3 h at 500, 600, 700, 800 and 900 degrees C. The results show that the porous TiO2 is mainly composed of anatase TiO2 nanocrystals with a size of 10 similar to 50 nm and the crystalline size of TiO2 increases with increasing sintering temperature. Porous TiO2 with La2O3 load were fabricated by different molar content of La2O3 (2.5 mol.%, 5.0 mol.%, 7.5 mol.% and 10 mol.%) at a sintering temperature of 600 degrees C in order to prevent the crystal phase transformation of anatase to rutile. The surface of porous TiO2 loaded with La2O3 possessed a sponge-like structure with pores of about 1 similar to 2 mu m. The surface area of porous TiO2 with La2O3 load is at range from 70.1929 to 126.8309 m(2)/g. The sample has better properties than the other samples, owing to the large specific surface area (similar to 77.2539 m(2)/g) and the strong peaks of TiO2 and La2O3 for the sample with 7.5 mol.% La2O3. It may be applied to water pollution treatment in order to remove arsenic and fluorine simultaneously.