Photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue in water solution by multilayer TiO 2 coating on HDPE

Abstract

A multilayer photocatalytic TiO 2 coating on a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) disk was found to degrade aqueous methylene blue in a batch reactor study. The TiO 2 coating was fabricated by a low-temperature method using polyurethane resin (PU) as a barrier layer for HDPE and as a binding agent for two TiO 2 layers. Adequate adhesion between the HDPE substrate and PU barrier in aqueous environment was ensured with an oxygen plasma treatment. The photocatalytic effect of immersed TiO 2 coating on the degradation of methylene blue in aqueous solution was monitored by UV–vis spectrometry as a function of UV-illumination time. Samples were allowed to adsorb methylene blue in the dark for 1 h before the UV-degradation experiments were started. The percentages of methylene blue degraded during 6 h UV illumination ( λ = 365 nm) varied from 80% to 92%. The degradation followed pseudo-first order reaction kinetics, and the observed rate constants ( k obs) were between 0.27 and 0.43 h −1.