Patent ID: 8883674

Claim:
A method of synthesizing a mesoporous catalyst support material comprising TiO 2 , the method comprising: providing decomposable nanometer scale polymer template particles having particle surfaces and being suspended with stirring in an acidified liquid alcohol medium; adding a titanium precursor alkoxide to the medium; hydrolyzing the precursor alkoxide to deposit hydrated titanium oxide onto the surfaces of the polymer template particles suspended in the liquid alcohol medium; collecting the polymer template particles with hydrated titanium oxide deposited thereon; heating the polymer template particles with deposited hydrated titanium oxide to decompose and volatilize the polymer particles and dehydrate the hydrated titanium oxide into a particulate mesoporous catalyst support material of substantially anhydrous TiO 2 with at least some of the TiO 2 being converted into its rutile crystal phase, the TiO 2 support material having open mesopores and closed mesopores, the ratio of the mass of polymer template particles and formed TiO 2 being between 0.1 and 0.3.