Preparation of molecularly imprinted Ag-TiO2 for photocatalytic removal of ethyl paraben

Herein, MI-Ag-TiO2 was prepared by one-step sol-gel method, and its photocatalytic and characterization performance were fully analyzed. Within 120 min, the photocatalytic degradation rate of MI-Ag-TiO2 to ethyl paraben was 93.4%, which was 1.48 times that of naked TiO2. Compared with Ag-TiO2, MI-TiO2, and TiO2, the photocatalytic selectivity of MI-Ag-TiO2 to target pollutants increased by 24.5%, 31.5%, and 100%, respectively. Hence, the one-step molecular imprinting method can simply and quickly improve the photocatalytic performance of TiO2. This research may help to further promote the practical application of molecularly imprinted photocatalysts in the future.

Automated summary

The research shows that MI-Ag-TiO2 prepared by one-step molecular imprinting method has excellent photocatalytic performance, with high degradation efficiency for ethyl paraben, and higher selectivity compared to other catalysts.