A series of sulfated titania xerogels impregnated with nickel were prepared by sol gel method with different methods of surfactant cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) templating and characterized by X-Ray Diffraction, Nitrogen adsorption, Fourier Transformed-Infra Red, and Transmission Electron Microscopy. The XRD patterns of the sulfated titania, TS and TS-P, showed anatase phase of titania with TS-P sample having higher crystallinity. While, TS-P/N8 sample, sulfated titania impregnated with 8wt% of nickel showed higher crystallinity than both pure sulfated titania. The addition of nickel increased the crystallinity of the samples, which was consistent with the result observed by TEM measurement and texture assessment. The texture assessment by Nitrogen adsorption method showed that the specific surface areas, pore diameter and pore volume of the nickel supported on sulphated titania, TS-P/N8 were higher than that of TS/N8. Sulfate loading tend to increase the specific surface area. The largest specific surface area was obtained for the TS-P/N8 with 8 wt% of nickel and 10 wt% of sulfate. Reduction process of the samples decreased the specific surface area, pore diameter and pore volume. There is an impact from the reduction process which could be explained from the FTIR spectra.
