Abstract
Plants, a major category in nature, have many advantages and unique properties. They are renewable, ecofriendly, diverse, and easily accessible. One of the most characterized advantages is their structure. The structure displays intricate patterns at multiple scales. Some researchers are trying to mimic these special structures through templating. In this study, a sol-gel method by infiltrating the template with precursor and followed by calcination, is proposed to synthesize TiO2 and CaCO3 materials using different plants as templates, including China rose (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis Linn.), Iron wood (Casuarina equisetifolia L.) cone, Hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii Sweet) leaf and Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) root. The results show that the micro-morphologies of plants can be well preserved in the replicas. XRD and EDS analyses confirm that the replicas are anatase TiO2 and calcite CaCO3. BET result proves that the replicas in both materials have higher surface area and wider distribution of pore size than that of powder. In addition, DVS data suggests the evident enhancement of vapor sorption-desorption ability of the replicas. The bio-templating technique investigated in this research can be further applied to pollutant purification and biomedical devices.