Photocatalytic Applications of Polypyrrole/Polythiophene Co‐Oligomers for the Degradation of Bisphenol A

Abstract

AbstractWith a view to explore the photocatalytic effect of conjugated oligomers against pollutants, the present work reports ultrasound‐assisted polymerization of pyrrole, thiophene and their oligomers in mol ratios of 80/20, 50/50, and 20/80. The synthesized oligomers were characterized using FTIR, UV‐Vis, and SEM. The co‐oligomers showed band gap values ranging between 2.6 eV–2.9 eV, higher than pristine polypyrrole (PPy) and polythiophene (PTh). The photocatalytic degradation of Bisphenol A was carried out under UV irradiation. Maximum degradation of 86 % within a span of 120 min was reported using PPy/PTh‐80/20 as photocatalyst. A tentative degradation pathway and mechanism of degradation were proposed based on the LCMS data and radical scavenging studies. The studies showed good photocatalytic properties of organic photocatalysts as compared to inorganic metal oxide‐based photocatalysts in terms of higher degradation efficiency attained in a short span of 120 min even for higher concentrations of BPA.