Preparation and Characterization of Polyaniline/Electrospun Titania Binary composite for Photocatalytic Methyl Blue Degradation

Abstract

The improvement of the photocatalytic efficiency of TiO2 nanofibers (NFs), prepared by Electrospinning, is achieved by doping with Polyaniline. The nanocomposite of TiO2 and Polyaniline (PANI) was synthesized by in situ polymerizations. TiO2 nanofiber was prepared by the hydrothermal sol-gel method and PANI was synthesized by an oxidative polymerization method. Morphological information of the prepared composites has been obtained from FESEM and TEM. Images of the PANI-TiO2 nanocomposite show uniform coated fibrous type morphological features. XRD patterns describe that, the crystalline structure for both TiO2 nanofiber and PANI/TiO2 composite. The vibrational bands present in the nanocomposite have been identified from FTIR spectra. Thermal property is determined by TGA and DTG. Chemical composition and elemental electronic state can be determined from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. UV-Vis absorption spectra have been acquired in the range from 200 nm to 800 nm. PANI/TiO2 composites cause a slight redshift of the peak at 365 and 408 nm red-shifts to 396 and 484 nm higher wavelength, respectively. The bandgap of the composites has been calculated from the absorption spectra. The photocatalytic efficiency of prepared samples has been examined through the degradation of methylene blue. Better photocatalytic efficiency of surface-modified TiO2 NFs with PANI is attributed to their enhanced optical properties, therefore., it has the ability to harvest the photon energy in the visible spectral range.