Miniemulsion polymerization technique enhancement: the photocatalysis of commercial rutile-TiO2 hybrids with nano poly(methyl methacrylate)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study of photocatalysis properties of the pristine poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)/TiO2 hybrids has been investigated. The miniemulsion technique was employed to prepare the encapsulation of titanium dioxide nano particles in poly(methyl methacrylate) beads prior used. The contents of nano TiO2 particles were various from 1%wt to 10%wt. The particles sizes of the TiO2-encapsulated PMMA hybrids were examined by dynamic light scattering. It was noticed that the particle size of the hybrids was in the range of 78.7–109.9 nm with narrow size distribution. The well-defined structure and embedded morphology of PMMA/TiO2 hybrids were explored using scanning electron microscopy. The degradation of methylene blue (MB) was measured under UV-A irradiation from 0–8 h in order to determine the photocatalytic activities of PMMA/TiO2 hybrids. The results show that the 10%wt TiO2 of PMMA hybrids presented the best performance of MB decolorization up to 60% under 2 h of irradiation time. The HR-TEM was also employed to observe the PMMA/TiO2 hybrids. It was noticed that the FFT images demonstrated the crystalline pattern of PMMA hybrids, corresponding to nano TiO2. It was indicated that the TiO2 were encapsulated in PMMA hybrids. Two types of bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (Gram-positive bacteria) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (Gram-negative bacteria) were employed to examine the antibacterial properties of PMMA/TiO2 hybrids. It was found that both S. aureus and K. pneumoniae were dramatically decreased more than 99.95% and 99.92% within 24 h, respectively.