Abstract
In the present work, we report the preparation and photocatalytic properties of TiO2@yeast-carbon with raspberry-like structure using a pyrolysis method. The products are characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermal gravimetric and differential thermal analysis (TGA-DTA), Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and ultraviolet visible spectroscopy (UV-VIS), respectively. The results show that the hybrid TiO2@yeast-carbon microspheres have ordered elliptic shapes of uniform size (length = 3.5±0.3 μm; width = 2.5±0.5 μm). UV-VIS ascertains that the as-prepared microspheres possess an obvious light response in a wide range of 250–400 nm. In the decomposition of typical model pollutants including methylene blue and congo red, the hybrid composites exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity for the methylene blue due to the enhanced adsorption ability. Further investigation reveals that the combined effect of adsorption from the yeast-carbon core and photocatalytic degradation from the attached TiO2nanoparticles were responsible for the improvement of the photocatalytic activities. Hereby, the raspberry-like TiO2@yeast-carbon has promising applications in water purification.
Highlights
In the past few years, raspberry-like composite particles with well-defined structures have become the subject of rapidly growing interest due to their high surface roughness and potential applications [1, 2]
Liu et al [13] demonstrated the formation of TiO2/carbon fibers (ACFs) composite photocatalyst via sol-gel method and the TiO2/ACFs is especially helpful for the removal of low molecular weight organic pollutants in the contaminated water
Similar morphology has been reported for the synthesis of the raspberry-like PMMA/SiO2 hybrid microspheres [21]
Summary
In the past few years, raspberry-like composite particles with well-defined structures have become the subject of rapidly growing interest due to their high surface roughness and potential applications [1, 2]. Using carbon materials above-mentioned as catalyst supports has increased the photodegradation rate by progressively allowing an increased quantity of substrate to come in contact with the TiO2 by means of adsorption. In this respect, carbon matrix has been proven to be an invaluable support in promoting the photocatalytic process [15,16,17] through providing a synergistic effect by creating a common interface between both the carbon phase and the TiO2 nanoparticle phase. The synergistic effect of adsorption-photocatalysis performance in the TiO2@yeast-carbon microspheres was evaluated by examining the decolonization of methylene blue and congo red
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