A surfactant-templated approach was used to synthesize phosphated mesoporous titanium dioxide by incorporating phosphorus from phosphoric acid directly into the framework of TiO2. The resulting materials were characterized by XRD, nitrogen adsorption, TEM, XPS analysis, UV−vis spectroscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy, and isoelectric point measurements. The surface area of phosphated mesoporous TiO2 exceeded 300 m2/g after calcination at 400 °C. It was found that the incorporation of phosphorus could stabilize the TiO2 framework and increase the surface area significantly. This stabilization is attributed to two reasons:  the more complete condensation of surface Ti−OH in the as-prepared sample and the inhibition of grain growth of the embedded anatase TiO2 by the interspersed amorphous titanium phosphate matrix during thermal treatment. Both pure and phosphated mesoporous TiO2 show significant activities on the oxidation of n-pentane. The higher photocatalytic activity of phosphated mesoporous TiO2 can be explained by the extended band gap energy, large surface area, and the existence of Ti ions in a tetrahedral coordination.

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Fe−Fe2O3 core−shell nanowires and nanonecklaces were obtained simply through controlling the reduction rate of Fe3+ ions by sodium borohydride in aqueous solution at ambient atmosphere. The resulting materials were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy images and energy dispersive X-ray spectrum, transmission electron microscopy, elemental mapping, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, and magnetization measurements. A possible formation mechanism was proposed on the basis of characterization results. It was interesting to find that the core−shell nanowires used in electrochemical-assisted and ultrasound-assisted Fenton-like reaction systems could much more efficiently degrade organic pollutant in aqueous solutions than traditional Fenton reagent Fe2+ ions under neutral pH and pH 2, respectively. This study indicates that the resulting iron-containing nanostructures are promising materials in magnetic, environmental, and catalytic fields.