Hierarchical Nanostructures of Copper(II) Phthalocyanine on Electrospun TiO₂ Nanofibers: Controllable Solvothermal-Fabrication and Enhanced Visible Photocatalytic Properties

Abstract

In the present work, 2,9,16,23-tetranitrophthalocyanine copper(II) (TNCuPc)/TiO(2) hierarchical nanostructures were successfully fabricated by a simple combination method of electrospinning technique and solvothermal processing. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-vis diffuse reflectance (DR), Fourier transform infrared spectrum (FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and thermal gravimetric and differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA) were used to characterize the as-synthesized TNCuPc/TiO(2) hierarchical nanostructures. The results showed that the secondary TNCuPc nanostructures were not only successfully grown on the primary TiO(2) nanofibers substrates but also uniformly distributed without aggregation. By adjusting the solvothermal fabrication parameters, the TNCuPc nanowires or nanoflowers were facilely fabricated, and also the loading amounts of TNCuPc could be controlled on the TNCuPc/TiO(2) hierarchical nanostructural nanofibers. And, there might exist the interaction between TNCuPc and TiO(2). A possible mechanism for the formation of TNCuPc/TiO(2) hierarchical nanostructures was suggested. The photocatalytic studies revealed that the TNCuPc/TiO(2) hierarchical nanostructures exhibited enhanced photocatalytic efficiency of photodegradation of Rhodamine B (RB) compared with the pure TNCuPc or TiO(2) nanofibers under visible-light irradiation.

Mesoporous TiO2 nanofibers with controllable Au loadings for catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol

“…5c) are located at 458.6 eV (Ti 2p 3/2 ) and 464.4 eV (Ti 2p 1/2 ), respectively. The observed spinorbit splitting between Ti 2p 3/2 and Ti 2p 1/2 is 5.8 eV, indicating that Ti 4 þ is the dominant oxidation state in this sample [44]. The O 1s core-level spectrum (Fig.…”

Carbon-modified BiVO4 microtubes embedded with Ag nanoparticles have high photocatalytic activity under visible light

“…Over the past few years, TiO 2 has been widely used and investigated for the photodegradation of organic pollutants in water owing to its cheapness, strong oxidizing power and non-toxicity [1][2][3][4] . However, due to its large band gap (> 3.1 eV for pure TiO 2 ), only a small fraction of solar energy (< 4%) can be effectively absorbed and used for photodegradation processes 5 .…”

“…Among them, m-BiVO 4 with a band gap of E g ≈ 2.40 eV is an excellent photocatalyst for O 2 evolution under visible-light irradiation, and thus may be a promising photocatalyst for the photodegradation of organic pollutants under visible-light irradiation 11-15 . However, the activity of BiVO 4 alone is not sufficiently high due to its low efficiency in separating photogenerated electron-hole pairs 16,17 . It would be beneficial if a more effective photocatalytic system is developed to promote the charge separation efficiency of BiVO 4 .…”

Facile process to greatly improve the photocatalytic activity of the TiO 2 thin film on window glass for the photodegradation of acetone and benzene

“…It has been reported that PVP can be used to fabricate the hierarchically porous TiO 2 sphere [23,24], the bowl/ring/ink-bottle like TiO 2 clusters [25], the truncated tetragonal bipyramidal TiO 2 nanocrystalline with exposed (001) facet and TiO 2 tube/fiber [26][27][28]. In this research, PVP was introduced into titania sol to fabricate transparent TiO 2 thin film with high crystallinity and high photocatalytic activity on window glass (soda-lime glass).…”