Conductive electrospun PANi-PEO/TiO2 fibrous membrane for photo catalysis

The integration of electrospinning and electrospraying to prepare the fibrous catalytic filter membrane is demonstrated. The non-conductive polyethylene oxide (PEO) is blended with (+/-)-camphor-10-sulfonic acid (CSA) doped conductive polyaniline (PANi) for electrospinning. The conductive CSA/PANi-PEO composite fibers are produced upon electrospinning, which are used as the conductive collector for electrospraying process by which titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) are sprayed and allowed to adsorb on the fibers. The degree of adsorption and dispersion of nano TiO2 catalysts on the surface of the CSA/PANi-PEO fibers exhibit a stronger dependence on weight percentage (wt%) of PANi in PEO solution and the strength of electrical conductivity of the fibers used during electrospraying. CSA/PANi-PEO fibers as collector reduce the wastage of TiO2 NPs during electrospraying to lesser than 5%. Among the three different composition of PANi studied, PEO with 12 wt% PANi yields very uniform diameter and beads-free fibrous structure with higher electrical conductivity. 12 wt%CSA/PANi-PEO fibrous membrane is found to support for greater dispersion of TiO2 NPs. The photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared TiO2-PANi-PEO catalytic membrane is tested against the toxicant simulant 2-chloroethyl phenyl sulfide (CEPS) under the ultraviolet light irradiation. It is observed that the TiO2 nanoparticles catalysts embedded PANi-PEO fibrous membrane decontaminated the toxicant CEPS significantly, which is due to uniform dispersion of the catalysts produced by the methodology. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.