A multistep impregnation method was employed to incorporate high amount of titania into the mesoporous SBA-15 silica. No damage to the SBA-15 silica mesostructures was caused by the loading of titania in every cycle. The existence of titania small nanodomains were confirmed to be present by Raman spectra and UV-vis DRS measurements. High dispersion of them was realized via this method according to the results of low-angle X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and N-2 sorption measurements. Importantly, no blockage of mesostructures was acknowledged with titania content up to 24.4 wt.%. In comparison, normally used one-step impregnation method led to serious blockage of mesopores as the results of formation of bulk titania particles in the mesochannels. Photo-activity test for the removal of oestrogen showed the superiority of the materials synthesized by multistep impregnation method to one-step impregnation method. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.