Novel, Facile, Single-Step Technique of Polymer/TiO₂ Nanofiber Composites Membrane for Photodegradation of Methylene Blue

Abstract

Novel photocatalyst membrane materials were successfully fabricated by an air jet spinning (AJS) technique from polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) solutions containing nanoparticles (NPs) of titanium dioxide (TiO2). Our innovative strategy for the production of composite nanofibers is based on stretching a solution of polymer with a high-speed compressed air jet. This enabled us to rapidly cover different substrates with TiO2/PVAc interconnected nanofibers. Surprisingly, the diameters of the as-spun fibers were found to decrease with increasing amount of NPs. Our results showed that AJS PVAc-based fibrous membranes with average fiber diameters of 505-901 nm have an apparent porosity of about 79-93% and a mean pore size of 1.58-5.12 μm. Embedding NPs onto the as-spun fibers resulted in increasing the tensile strength of the obtained composite fiber mats. The photodegradation property of TiO2 membrane mats proved a high efficiency in the decomposition of methylene blue dye. The novel fiber spinning technique discussed in this paper can provide the capacity to lace together a variety of types of polymers, fibers and particles to produce interconnected fibers layer. Our approach, therefore, opens the door for the innovation in nanocomposite mat that has great potential as efficient and economic water filter media and as reusable photocatalyst.

Preparation of aerochitin‐TiO2 composite for efficient photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue

“…The peaks at 3434 and 3256 cm −1 are assigned to OH and NH 2 stretching vibrations of chitin. The broad nature of the bands in the wavenumber range 3000–3400 cm −1 for the aerochitin–TiO 2 composite is due to the hydrogen bonding interaction between the OH and CONH 2 groups of chitin with TiO bond of TiO 2 . The bands in the range of 2875–2962 cm −1 are attributed to CH, CH 3 symmetric stretching and CH 2 asymmetric stretching vibrations.…”

Core–sheath nanofibrous membranes based on poly(acrylonitrile‐butadiene‐styrene), polyacrylonitrile, and zinc oxide nanoparticles for photoreduction of Cr(VI) ions in aqueous solutions

“…Among the various water pollutants, heavy metals are more concerned, because their intake causes a wide variety of cancers. [5][6][7][8][9][10] Regarding the inorganic nanoparticles, the scientific community has taken advantage of the photocatalytic activity of zinc oxide (ZnO) to develop materials with antimicrobial activity and dye degradation. 1 Concerning the strategies for the purification of water contaminated with heavy metals, the use of systems based on polymer membranes has been extensively preferred due to suitable mechanical performance that these materials provide for highpressure processes and their versatility of thermal and chemical properties.…”

One-Pot Route towards Active TiO2 Doped Hierarchically Porous Cellulose: Highly Efficient Photocatalysts for Methylene Blue Degradation

“…This further proves interfacial interactions between TiO 2 and cellulose. The possible mechanism is that the Ti–OH groups on the surface of TiO 2 react with the hydroxyl groups in the cellulose chain, forming hydrogen bonding on the inner and outer surfaces of CTM matrix [13]. …”

“…Furthermore, cellulose is applicable for supporting TiO 2 nanoparticles owing to its good compatibility with TiO 2 nanoparticles. Several types of low-dimensional cellulose materials have been reported, including cellulose nanofibers and films by electrospinning and phase separation method, respectively [2,13,14,15,16]. …”