Journal
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Volume 9, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE RESEARCH
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-40775-4
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- MHRD Govt. of India
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In this study photocatalyst,TiO2@HNTs were prepared by synthesizing TiO2, nanoparticles in situ on the functionalized halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) surface. Photocatalytic PVC membrane TiO2@HNTs M2 (2 wt.%) and TiO2@HNTs M3 (3 wt.%) were also prepared. Photocatalyst TiO2@HNTs and photocatalytic PVC membranes were used to study the photocatalytic activity against the methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RB) dyes in UV batch reactor. The structure and morphology of photocatalyst and photocatalytic PVC membrane were characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-Vis spectrophotometer and photoluminescence (PL). The PL study showed that the oxygen vacancies and surface hydroxyl groups present on the surface of TiO2@HNTs act as excellent traps for charge carrier, reducing the electronhole recombination rate. TiO2@HNTs 2 (2 wt.%) and TiO2@HNTs 3 (3wt.%) degraded MB dye up to 83.21%, 87.47% and RB dye up to 96.84% and 96.87%, respectively. TiO2@HNT photocatalyst proved to be stable during the three consecutive cycle of photocatalytic degradation of the RB dye. TiO2@HNTs M2 and TiO2@HNTs M3 degraded MB dye up to 27.19%, 42.37% and RB dye up to 30.78%, 32.76%, respectively. Photocatalytic degradation of both the dyes followed the first-order kinetic model. Degradation product analysis was done using the liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and the results showed that the dye degradation was initiated by demethylation of the molecule. MB and RB dye degradation reaction were tested by TBA and IPA as OH* and H+ scavengers respectively. Mechanism of photocatalytic activity of TiO2@HNTs and photocatalytic PVC membrane were also explained.
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