The self-assembly and formation mechanism of regenerated cellulose films for photocatalytic degradation of C.I. Reactive Blue 19

Abstract

In this paper, a simple method has been developed to fabricate flexible fiber materials with excellent visible light response. Firstly, polydopamine (PDA) layer was deposited on the cotton fibers to functionize cotton fibers. Then, a uniformly dense layer of silver and tungsten trioxide nanoparticles was obtained on cotton fabric by reduction of PDA. The deposition of PDA provided a media for the Ag–WO3 photocatalyst to be loaded with good adhension. The results showed that the prepared cotton (C)-PDA–Ag–WO3(c) composite photocatalytic material exhibited excellent photocatalytic performance with 98% degradation efficiency of RB-19 dye solution within 180 min under visible light irradiation. Moreover, the degradation rate constants were 52.43 ×, 35.73 ×, 12.01 × and 3.77 × higher than those of raw cotton, C-PDA, C-PDA-Ag and C-PDA-Ag–WO3(a), respectively. The free radical trapping experiments showed that h+, ·OH and ·O2− were important active species in the photocatalytic process. Based on the characterizations of the system, the possible photocatalytic reaction mechanism of the C-PDA-Ag–WO3(c) composite photocatalytic material was proposed. This paper provided a new perspective for the preparation of high catalytic performance visible light responsive flexible fiber materials applied in the degradation of dye wastewater.