Elimination of Phenylhydrazine from Aqueous Solutions by Use of a Photocatalyst Prepared by Immobilization of TiO2 on Polypyrrole Support

Abstract

In this study, a nano photocatalyst was prepared by immobilization of TiO2 on the surface of polymerized pyrrole. The photocatalyst was characterized by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and Thermogravimetry and Derivative Thermogravimetry (TG-DTG) techniques. Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS) and Photoluminescence (PL) analysis were employed to study the optical property of the photocatalyst. The synthesized photocatalyst was then employed for degradation of phenylhydrazine (PHZ). The effect of various experimental parameters including; initial pollutant concentration, irradiation time, pH and catalyst dose was studied. The results indicated that degradation efficiency of the synthesized photocatalyst was much higher than bulk TiO2, and the degradation efficiency of 45 and 75% was respectively obtained for bulk TiO2 and the synthesized photocatalyst. DRS results indicated that the band gap of TiO2 was significantly shifted to lower energy after loading on polypyrrole (PPy). The PL analysis showed that the electron–hole recombination in the synthesized photocatalyst was much lower than TiO2. The used photocatalyst regenerated by thermal treatment retained most of its initial activity.