Synthesis of CC/PANI/TiO2 composite material and its photocatalytic performance

Abstract:

Polyaniline was firstly grown on carbon cloth by in-situ polymerization. The final composite material of CC/PANI/ TiO₂ was then successfully synthesized via solvothermal method, during which TiO₂ nanosheets was formed on the prepared carbon cloth/polyaniline (CC/PANI) composite material. The synthesized photocatalysts were characterized using SEM, XRD, UV, FTIR,XPS and so on. The photocatalytic degradation performances of RhB over the prepared CC/PANI/TiO₂ and the pure TiO₂ were compared. The results indicated that CC/PANI/TiO₂ composite material had better photocatalytic activity than TiO₂ under UV-vis irradiation. PL showed that the luminescence intensity of CC/PANI/TiO₂ was much weaker than that of pure TiO₂, which inhibited the electron-hole pair recombination effectively. Transient photocurrent response and EIS curves verified that CC/PANI/TiO₂ catalyst showed more efficient photocarrier separation and transfer efficiency, beneficial to the improvement of photocatalytic activity. The capture of active pieces experiments indicated that the free .OH radicals and ^_.O_2^- radicals were the main active oxidizing species involved in the RhB photoreaction process of CC/PANI/TiO₂. Moreover, CC/PANI/TiO₂ catalyst still had high catalytic activity after 6 times of recycling, showing its good application prospects in the field of sewage treatment.