Biotemplated diatom silica-titania materials for air purificationThis paper is published as part of the themed issue of contributions from the 7th European Meeting on Solar Chemistry and Photocatalysis: Environmental Applications held in Porto, Portugal, June 2012

We present a novel manufacture route for silica-titania photocatalysts using the diatom microalga Pinnularia sp. Diatoms self-assemble into porous silica cell walls, called frustules, with periodic micro-, meso- and macroscale features. This unique hierarchical porous structure of the diatom frustule is used as a biotemplate to incorporate titania by a sol-gel methodology. Important material characteristics of the modified diatom frustules under study are morphology, crystallinity, surface area, pore size and optical properties. The produced biosilica-titania material is evaluated towards photocatalytic activity for NO x abatement under UV radiation. This research is the first step to obtain sustainable, well-immobilised silica-titania photocatalysts using diatoms. The unique silica cell wall of diatom microalgae is used as a catalyst support to produce biosilica-titania photocatalysts. Different titania loadings are tested.