Notice of RetractionPreparation of Amphiphilic Silica-Covered TiO2 Hollow Microspheres and Its Activity for Mythlene Blue Degradation

Notice of Retraction

After careful and considered review of the content of this paper by a duly constituted expert committee, this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE´s Publication Principles.

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SiO₂-void-TiO₂ microspheres were successfully prepared by first polymerization of furfuryldehyde and precipitation of silica, and then the mid-layer of polyfurfuryldehyde was removed to create a nanovoid layer between a TiO₂ core and silica shell. Then the surfaces of SiO₂-void-TiO₂ were modified by partial alkylsilylation of n-octadecyltrichlorosilane to render the SiO₂-void-TiO₂ surface amphiphilic. The as-prepared catalysts were characterized using XRD, HR-TEM, FT-IR and TG-DTA techniques. Results demonstrated that, as-prepared catalysts could be easily located at the boundary of the dual-phase organic-water mixture, due to the introduction of partial hydrophobicity. The photocatalytic experimental results indicated that amphiphilic SiO₂-void-TiO₂ could operate as an effective photacatalysts to decolorize the methylene blue solution. This new catalyst would promote effective commercial applications due to its more convenient recovery, compared to TiO₂ catalysts.