Titania-pillared molybdenum oxide as a new nanoporous photocatalyst

Abstract New nanoporous TiO 2 –MoO 3 hybrids have been successfully synthesized via an exfoliation and reassembling method. According to the X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis, quantum-sized titania nanoparticles with an average size of 1 nm were intercalated into the interlayer spaces of layered MoO 3 . Such a regularity of pillars results in a remarkable enhancement of the specific surface area, as confirmed by nitrogen adsorption–desorption measurements. The Langmuir specific surface area (210 m 2  g −1 ) of TiO 2 -pillared MoO 3 hybrid has been determined to be considerably larger than that (10 m 2  g −1 ) of the self-restacked MoO 3 . It is evident that adequate intercalation of TiO 2 nanoparticles into a MoO 3 lattice gives rise to a highly nanoporous structure. The photocatalytic activity of the present nanoporous hybrid is much superior to that of layered molybdenum oxide alone in terms of the degradation of organic pollutant.