A spectroscopic study of group IV transition metal-incorporated direct templated mesoporous catalysts. Part 1: a comparison between materials synthesized using hydrophobic and hidrophilic Ti precursors

Titanium has been incorporated into mesoporous silica using novel one-pot procedures based on the true liquid crystal templating (TLCT) synthesis method. Two different Ti sources were used, one insoluble in water (titanocene dichloride) and the other completely soluble (titanium acetylacetonate). The nature of the metallic sites was investigated using diffuse reflectance UV-vis, photoluminescence and FT-IR spectroscopy. Some insight into the coordination and position of optically active species within the silica mesostructure was gained by adsorption of oxygen and ammonia probe molecules. Our results point to a particularly simple and versatile means of functionalizing mesoporous silica for catalytic applications.