Preparation and Characterization of Highly Spherical Silica-titania Aerogel Beads with High Surface Area

The silica-titania aerogel beads were synthesized through sol-gel reaction followed by supercritical drying, in which TEOS and TBT as co-precursors, EtOH as solvents, HAC and NH₃·H₂O as catalysts. The as-prepared aerogel beads were characterized by SEM,TEM,XRD,FT-IR,TG-DTA and nitrogen adsorption-desorption. The results indicate that the diameter distribution of beads are between 1-8mm, the average diameter of beads is 3.5mm. The aerogel beads have nanoporous network structure with high specific surface area of 914.5m²/g, and the TiO₂ particles are distributed in the aerogel uniformly, which keep the anatase crystal under high temperature