Large-scale, three-dimensional, free-standing, and mesoporous metal oxide networks for high-performance photocatalysis.

Mesoporous nanostructures represent a unique class of photocatalysts with many applications, including splitting of water, degradation of organic contaminants, and reduction of carbon dioxide. In this work, we report a general Lewis acid catalytic template route for the high-yield producing single- and multi-component large-scale three-dimensional (3D) mesoporous metal oxide networks. The large-scale 3D mesoporous metal oxide networks possess large macroscopic scale (millimeter-sized) and mesoporous nanostructure with huge pore volume and large surface exposure area. This method also can be used for the synthesis of large-scale 3D macro/mesoporous hierarchical porous materials and noble metal nanoparticles loaded 3D mesoporous networks. Photocatalytic degradation of Azo dyes demonstrated that the large-scale 3D mesoporous metal oxide networks enable high photocatalytic activity. The present synthetic method can serve as the new design concept for functional 3D mesoporous nanomaterials.