Synthesis and Characterization of Titanium Dioxide Hollow Nanofiber for Photocatalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue Dye.

Mohd Zamri Mohd Yusop,Takeshi Matsuura,Farhana Aziz,Ahmad Fauzi Ismail,Mohd Hafiz Dzarfan Othman,Mukhlis A Rahman,Sadaki Samitsu,Juhana Jaafar,Wan Norharyati Wan Salleh,Arun M Isloor,Nurul Natasha Mohammad Jafri,Nur Hashimah Alias

doi:10.3390/membranes11080581

Abstract

Environmental crisis and water contamination have led to worldwide exploration for advanced technologies for wastewater treatment, and one of them is photocatalytic degradation. A one-dimensional hollow nanofiber with enhanced photocatalytic properties is considered a promising material to be applied in the field. Therefore, we synthesized titanium dioxide hollow nanofibers (THNF) with extended surface area, light-harvesting properties and an anatase–rutile heterojunction via a template synthesis method and followed by a calcination process. The effect of calcination temperature on the formation and properties of THNF were determined and the possible mechanism of THNF formation was proposed. THNF nanofibers produced at 600 °C consisted of a mixture of 24.2% anatase and 75.8% rutile, with a specific surface area of 81.2776 m2/g. The hollow nanofibers also outperformed the other catalysts in terms of photocatalytic degradation of MB dye, at 85.5%. The optimum catalyst loading, dye concentration, pH, and H2O2 concentration were determined at 0.75 g/L, 10 ppm, pH 11, and 10 mM, respectively. The highest degradation of methylene blue dye achieved was 95.2% after 4 h of UV irradiation.

Highlights

Water contamination caused by domestic wastes, industrial chemicals, fertilizers, and organic dyes has become one of the global environmental concerns [1]
TiO2 hollow nanofibers have been successfully synthesized via template synthesis
The obtained hollow nanofibers exhibit admirable photocatalytic performance attributed to the anatase–rutile heterojunction creation, extended surface area for UV and dye molecules adsorption, and light-harvesting effect in the hollow cavities of the nanofibers

Summary

Introduction

Water contamination caused by domestic wastes, industrial chemicals, fertilizers, and organic dyes has become one of the global environmental concerns [1]. The amount of dye produced annually in the world was estimated to be a million tons [2] and the wastewater from these industries is often discharged into natural waters without being treated. It is essential to develop an effective and reliable method to treat dye wastewater. Conventional treatments like adsorption [3] and coagulation [4] are used in treating dye-contaminated wastewater. These methods do not completely destroy the pollutants but produce suspended particles or sludge that require post-treatment disposal

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Results

Conclusion