Titanium-Pillared Clay: Preparation Optimization, Characterization, and Artificial Neural Network Modeling.

Titanium-pillared clay (Ti-PILC), as one of the most suitable types of porous adsorbents/(photo)catalysts, was prepared from a local type of Iranian clay and titanium isopropoxide. The production process was optimized by changing three operating parameters, including the clay suspension concentration (in the range of 0.5-10% /), the H/Ti ratio (2-8 mol/mol), and the calcination temperature (300-700 °C). The largest specific surface area for the Ti-PILC was about 164 m/g under the clay suspension of 0.5% /, H/Ti = 6, with a surface area 273% larger than that of the raw clay. The surface areas obtained from more concentrated clay suspensions were, however, comparable (159 m/g for 3% / clay and H/Ti = 4). An increase in the calcination temperature has a negative effect on the porous texture of Ti-PILC, but based on modeling with artificial neural networks, its contribution was only 7%. Clay suspension and H/Ti ratio play a role of 56 and 37% of the specific surface area. The presence of rutile phase, and in some cases anatase phase of TiO crystals was detected. FTIR and SEM investigations of Ti-PILCs produced under different operating parameters were analyzed.