Fabrication of TiO2/CoMoO4/PANI nanocomposites with enhanced photocatalytic performances for removal of organic and inorganic pollutants under visible light

Ternary photocatalysts with superior visible-light photocatalytic performances, were fabricated for the first time through integration of CoMoO4 and polyaniline (PANI) with TiO2. These photocatalysts were studied by XRD, EDX, SEM, HRTEM, XPS, BET, PL, UV-vis DRS, and FT-IR. The ternary nanocomposites showed a significantly great efficiency for photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB), methyl orange (MO), methylene blue (MB) and fuchsine, as organic pollutants, and photoreduction of Cr(VI), as an inorganic pollutant, in the presence of visible-light illumination, when compared with TiO2 and TiO2/CoMoO4 samples. The photodegradation efficiency of RhB over the TiO2/CoMoO4/PANI (30%) photocatalyst was 21.7 and 4.9-folds as high as the pure TiO2 and TiO2/CoMoO4 (30%) nanocomposite, respectively. Moreover, the as-synthesized TiO2/CoMoO4/PANI (30%) nanocomposite exhibited considerable photocatalytic activity in reduction of Cr(VI), which is 13.8 and 4.9-folds as high as the TiO2 and TiO2/CoMoO4 (30%) samples, respectively. Pursuant to the results, O-center dot(2)- played critical role during the photocatalytic elimination of RhB. Furthermore, the ternary nanocomposite showed high photocatalytic stability. The present work provides a new approach to design ternary visible-light photocatalysts based on TiO2 with enhanced performances for water purifications.