A new route to synthesis of Titanium Silicalite-1 by ball-milling

Titanium Silicalite-1 (TS-1) was successfully synthesized from amorphous silica and titania powders by using a ball-milling method. In this method, amorphous fumed silica and anatase titania powders were ground in a planetary ball mill to produce a silica-titania precursor. The obtained precursor was then hydrothermally treated where TPABr was used as a template to obtain titanium silicalite-1 (TS-1). The XRD and UV-vis spectra indicate that the titanium in anatase with octahedral coordination is incorporated into the silica-titania precursor and the final TS-1 framework with a tetrahedral coordination. SEM image shows that TS-1 synthesized in this work appears in a shape of elongated prism with a dimension of about 3μm×1μm×0.2μm. This method gives a simple new approach to the synthesis of TS-1 using inexpensive silicon source, titanium source and template.