The widespread use and development of aerogels for catalysis applications is due to their characteristically high surface area. However, the synthesis of typical aerogels is costly and time-consuming, and the need for supercritical drying to preserve surface area compounds both of these issues. This study serves to further modify our novel synthesis to chemically control binding sites to increase surface area. Our original synthesis involved doping fumed silica with titanyl sulfate hydrate followed by drying and calcining at high temperatures to remove any water and organic molecules. The proposed modification of this procedure involved doping fumed silica with a second, smaller compound prior to adding titanyl sulfate to chemically promote binding at sites away from naturally occurring pores in the fumed silica. Characterization through scanning electron microscopy, BET surface area analysis, and BJH pore size distribution showed that doping the fumed silica prior to adding the titanyl sulfate did result in a substantially larger surface area and an increase in nanopores. As surface area is intrinsically tied to catalysis, further developments in high surface area materials result in more efficient catalysts.
