Oval cuboid TiO2 particles with mesoporous structure fabricated by using fluorinated block copolymers as templates with photocatalytic performance

In this work, a poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(1H,1H,7H-dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate) (PEG-b-PDFMA) block copolymer was first synthesized by the reversible addition−fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. Then a novel facile approach was developed to fabricate oval cuboid TiO₂ particles with mesoporous structure by using the PEG-b-PDFMA block copolymer as a template and titanium tetrabutoxide (TBOT) as a precursor, followed by evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) process and calcination process. The results show that the PEG-b-PDFMA block copolymer can control the oriented assembly of nanoparticles and act as templates for the formation of a mesopore. It is found that the mass ratio of TBOT/PEG-b-PDFMA and water content in the solution have a significant influence on the morphology of TiO₂ particles. When the mass ratio of TBOT/PEG-b-PDFMA is 0.25/1, oval cuboid TiO₂ particles with mesopores are obtained, which exhibits a high photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye under UV light irradiation.