Structural Characteristics and Photocatalytic Activity of Ambient Pressure Dried SiO2/TiO2 Aerogel Composites by One-step Solvent Exchange/Surface Modification

An ambient pressure synthesis of SiO2/TiO2 binary aerogel was prepared through the low-cost precursors of titanium tetrachloride（TiCl4） and sodium silicate（Na2O·nSiO2）.After gelation,solvent exchange and surface modification were performed simultaneously and the modified gel was finally dried under ambient pressure.Microstructural analyses by transmission electron microscope（TEM） indicate that fabricated SiO2/TiO2 aerogel composite shows similar sponge-like nanostructure as silica aerogel,and the Brunauer-EmmettTeller（BET） analysis shows that the specific surface area of the composite reaches 605 m^2/g,and the average pore size is 9.7 nm.Such binary aerogel exhibits significant photocatalytic performance in this paper for treating model pollutant of methyl orange（MO）,and the decolorizing efficiency of MO is detected as 84.9%after 210 mins exposure to UV light irradiation.Degraded gel suspends in the water so as to separate from solution for reuse,and after 4 times recycling,70%degradation efficiency can be easily reached when composite catalyzed system is exposed for 210 mins under UV irradiation.

Highly Active and Stable Ni_2P/SiO_2 Catalyst for Hydrogenation of C_9 Petroleum Resin

Catalytic hydrogenation is an appropriate method for the improvement of C9 petroleum resin（C9PR） quality. In this study, the Ni2P/SiO2（containing 10% of Ni） catalyst prepared by the temperature-programmed reduction（TPR） method was used for hydrogenation of C9 petroleum resins. The effect of reaction conditions on catalytic performance was studied, and the results showed that the optimum reaction temperature, pressure and liquid hourly space velocity（LHSV） was 250 ℃, 6.0 MPa, and 1.0 h-1, respectively. The bromine numbers of hydrogenated products were maintained at low values（250 mg Br/100g） within 300h, showing the high activity and stability of Ni2P/SiO2 catalyst. The fresh and spent catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction（XRD）, BET surface area（BET） analysis, scanning electron microscopy（SEM）, transmission electron microscopy（TEM）, Fourier transform infrared（FTIR） pyridine adsorption, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS）. Compared with the traditional sulfurated-Ni W catalysts, Ni2P possessed globe-like structure instead of layered structure like the active phase of Ni WS, thereof exposing more active sites, which were responsible for the high activity of Ni2P/SiO2 catalyst. The stability of Ni2P/SiO2 catalyst was probably attributed to its high sulfur tolerance, antisintering, anti-coking and carbon-resistance ability. These properties might be further ascribed to the special Ni-P-S surface phase, high thermal stability of Ni2P nanoparticles and weak surface acidity for the Ni2P/SiO2 catalyst.