A novel BN/TiO2/HNT nanocomposite for photocatalytic applications fabricated by electrospinning

Here, we fabricated non-toxic composite nanofibers by including controlled amounts of boron nitride (BN) nanosheets (5 %), titanium oxide (TiO2) nanofibers and halloysite nanotubes (HNT) with the aim of obtaining a good catalyst for acetaminophen (ACT) degradation. After annealing at 400 degrees C under air, we characterized the samples' morphological, structural, and optical features by scanning and transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmet-Teller analysis, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. Under visible light, BN/TiO2/HNT nanocomposite (5 % of BN nanosheets and 5 % of TiO2) degraded more than 98 % of acetaminophen after 3 h. Moreover, the BN/TiO2/HNT nano-composite could be used for five cycles without significant changes in acetaminophen degradation rate. The acute toxicity and scavenging tests to monitor the formation of by-products and reactive species showed that OH center dot-, O2 center dot-, and h+ played a major role in acetaminophen degradation. These results indicate that BN/TiO2/HNT composite nanofibers can be used for photodegradation and open new prospects for developing tunable photocatalysts.

Automated summary

In this study, non-toxic composite nanofibers were fabricated by incorporating controlled amounts of boron nitride (BN) nanosheets (5 %), titanium oxide (TiO2) nanofibers, and halloysite nanotubes (HNT). The aim was to obtain an efficient catalyst for acetaminophen (ACT) degradation. The results showed that the BN/TiO2/HNT nanocomposite degraded over 98% of acetaminophen after 3 hours of visible light irradiation. The composite also maintained its degradation rate after five cycles and OH center dot-, O2 center dot-, and h+ were found to play major roles in the degradation process.