Hemicellulose/TiO2 composite gel was prepared using hemicellulose and TiO2 nanoparticles. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to study the structure and morphology of the hydrogel. Experimental analysis showed that the hemicellulose was successfully grafted with the polyacrylic acid and a porous hydrogel was observed. The pore size of the hydrogel decreased with the increase of the TiO2 content. In addition
the swelling properties and photocatalytic degradation properties of the hydrogel were also investigated. Experimental results showed that the swelling ratio of the hydrogel increased at first and then decreased with the increase of pH while kept decreasing with the increase of the TiO2 content. The degradation ratio of methylene blue increased at first and then decreased with the increase of the TiO2 content or a rise of pH value of the methylene blue solution
and it also increased with the increase of the initial concentration of methylene blue solution.