A simple route to synthesize mesoporous titania from TiOSO₄: Influence of the synthesis conditions on the structural, pigments and photocatalytic properties

Highlights: • A green and facile synthesis of mesoporous TiO₂ is used TiOSO₄ as the Ti source. • This is the first paper to talk about using mesoporous TiO₂ as white pigments. • The obtained materials exhibited well pigments and photocatalytic performance. • Mesoporous TiO₂ may be regarded as an ideal pigments for indoor purification. - Abstract: The work obtained mesoporous TiO₂ white pigments using titanyl sulfate as titanium source with a simple, low-temperature method simplifying the synthesis process and reducing the energy consumption. We investigated the effects of the aging temperature and aging time on the structure and pigments properties of the samples. The structure and morphology of mesoporous samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The obtained mesoporous TiO₂ showed excellent pigments properties of whiteness (93.91%), hiding power (12.37 g m⁻²), and lightness value (97.89), respectively. Moreover, such materials showed outstanding photodegradation performance of organic dyes under UV light irradiation. The current research provided an alternative route to prepare mesoporous TiO₂ micspheres white pigments with well photocatalytic performance for indoor purification on industrial scale. It has great significance in titania white pigments field.