Abstract
In this study, novel photocatalyst monolith materials were successfully fabricated by a non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) technique. By adding a certain amount of ethyl acetate (as non-solvent) into a cellulose/LiCl/N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) solution, and successively adding titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (NPs), cellulose/TiO2 composite monoliths with hierarchically porous structures were easily formed. The obtained composite monoliths possessed mesopores, and two kinds of macropores. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), and Ultraviolet-visible Spectroscopy (UV-Vis) measurements were adopted to characterize the cellulose/TiO2 composite monolith. The cellulose/TiO2 composite monoliths showed high efficiency of photocatalytic activity in the decomposition of methylene blue dye, which was decomposed up to 99% within 60 min under UV light. Moreover, the composite monoliths could retain 90% of the photodegradation efficiency after 10 cycles. The novel NIPS technique has great potential for fabricating recyclable photocatalysts with highly efficiency.
Highlights
Wastewater from textile printing containing organic pollutants is one of the main causes of environmental pollution, and a threat to both human health and ecosystems [1]
We report one-pot fabrication of hierarchically porous cellulose/TiO2 monoliths by non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) method
The amount of cellulose was 85 mg for each cellulose/TiO2 monolith, and 1 mg, 10 mg, and 20 mg of TiO2 NPs were added into cellulose solution, corresponding to the cellulose:TiO2 gravimetric ratios of 1:85, 2:17 and 4:17, respectively
Summary
Wastewater from textile printing containing organic pollutants is one of the main causes of environmental pollution, and a threat to both human health and ecosystems [1]. To prevent these contaminants from discharging into the environment, various methods have been developed to directly remove or decompose them. TiO2 nanoparticles are prone to be aggregated, which may reduce the photocatalytic efficiency. The size of TiO2 nanoparticles is too small to recycle, which causes secondary pollution [4,5,6]
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