Photoactive behavior of polyacrylonitrile fibers based on silver and zirconium co‐doped titania nanocomposites: Synthesis,characterization, and comparative study of solid‐phase photocatalytic self‐cleaning |
| |
Authors: | Hadi Fallah Moafi Abdollah Fallah Shojaie Mohammad Ali Zanjanchi |
| |
Affiliation: | Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran |
| |
Abstract: | Silver and zirconium co‐doped and mono‐doped titania nanocomposites were synthesized and deposited onto polyacrylonitrile fibers via sol–gel dip‐coating method. The resulted coated‐fibers were characterized by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and BET surface area measurement. Photocatalytic activity of the TiO2‐coated and TiO2‐doped coated fibers were determined by photomineralization of methylene blue and Eosin Y under UV–vis light. The progress of photodegradation of dyes was monitored by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The XRD results of samples indicate that the TiO2, Ag‐TiO2, Zr‐TiO2, and Ag‐Zr‐TiO2 consist of anatase phase. All samples demonstrated photo‐assisted self‐cleaning properties when exposed to UV–vis irradiation. Evaluated by decomposing dyes, photocatalytic activity of Ag–Zr co‐doped TiO2 coated fiber was obviously higher than that of pure TiO2 and mono‐doped TiO2. Our results showed that the synergistic action between the silver and zirconium species in the Ag‐Zr TiO2 nanocomposite is due to both the structural and electronic properties of the photoactive anatase phase. These results clearly indicate that modification of semiconductor photocatalyst by co‐doping process is an effective method for increasing the photocatalytic activity. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013 |
| |
Keywords: | titania nanocomposite Ag– Zr co‐doped self‐cleaning polyacrylonitrile fibers sol– gel methylene blue Eosin Y |
|
|