Thiophenyl sulfonated nickel phthalocynine-TiO2 nanocomposite: Synthesis, characterization and superior visible light photocatalytic activity

Tetra (4-Thiophenyl) sulfonated phthalocyaninatonickel(II) (PhS center dot SO3Na)(4)NiPc was synthesized and characterized by various spectroscopic methods A TiO2 nanoparticles was synthesized by hydrolysis/ hydrothermal method. (PhS center dot SO3Na)(4)NiPc was immobilized on the surface of TiO2 nanoparticles by liquid-solid adsorption-equilibrium method forming a new (PhS center dot SO3Na)(4)NiPc-TiO2 nanocomposite. The synthesized (PhS center dot SO3Na)(4)NiPc, TiO2 and (PhS center dot SO3Na)(4)NiPc-TiO2 nanocomposite were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy and BET surface area measurements. The characterization results show that (PhS center dot SO3Na)(4)NiPc 5 is anchored on the surface of TiO2 through SO2-O-TiO2 bonds. The visible light photocatalytic performance of the synthesized nanocomposite was tested in wastewater treatment for the degradation of Bromophenol blue (BPB) as a model pollutant. It is shown that (PhS center dot SO3Na)(4)NiPc-TiO2 nanocomposite assisted with H2O2 has 100% removal efficiency for BPB in 50 min while Pristine TiO2 was able to degrade only 32% of BPB under the same conditions. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.