TY - JOUR
T1 - Comparison of hydrophilic PVA/TiO2and hydrophobic PVDF/TiO2microfiber webs on the dye pollutant photo-catalyzation
AU - Lou, Lihua
AU - Kendall, Ronald J.
AU - Ramkumar, Seshadri
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the love of learning awards from Phi Kappa Phi and the scholarship from Terracon for their help with the student research funding. The authors appreciate the summer thesis and dissertation scholarship and the research funding from the Graduate School of Texas Tech University (TTU) . The authors would also like to acknowledge Dr. Brandon Weeks and his Ph.D. student Lee Yong Joon, at TTU for their help with AFM figures.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2020/10
Y1 - 2020/10
N2 - In this paper, hydrophilic PVA/TiO2 and hydrophobic PVDF/TiO2 microfibrous webs with varied TiO2 concentrations (0 %, 1 %, 3 %, 5 %, 10 %, and 20 %) were produced by the electrospinning technique. UV-vis spectrums were tested to demonstrate the photocatalytic properties of PVA/TiO2 and PVDF/TiO2 webs under visible light. Overall, PVDF/TiO2 exhibits higher Rhodamine B (RhB) decomposition efficiency than PVA/TiO2 samples. Specifically, RhB of around 50 % and 80 % were degraded by 13 d and 49 d for PVA/TiO2 samples with TiO2 of 10 %. RhB of around 50 % and 100 % were degraded at 3 h and 49 d for PVDF/TiO2 samples with TiO2 of 10 % and 20 %. Furthermore, the degradation rate for PVA/TiO2 and PVDF/TiO2 with TiO2 of 10 % is around 0.11 and 0.23. The difference in RhB photodegradation mechanism of PVA/TiO2 and PVDF/TiO2 webs was described and discussed in this paper. Hydrophobic PVDF/TiO2 was suspended in RhB liquid and ensured maximum contact between RhB pollutants and TiO2, whereas PVA/TiO2 completely dissolved in RhB liquid, which decreased the contact area and caused secondary pollution. In conclusion, hydrophobic PVDF/TiO2 webs with TiO2 of 10 % were suitable candidates for RhB photodegradation compared to PVA/ TiO2 webs.
AB - In this paper, hydrophilic PVA/TiO2 and hydrophobic PVDF/TiO2 microfibrous webs with varied TiO2 concentrations (0 %, 1 %, 3 %, 5 %, 10 %, and 20 %) were produced by the electrospinning technique. UV-vis spectrums were tested to demonstrate the photocatalytic properties of PVA/TiO2 and PVDF/TiO2 webs under visible light. Overall, PVDF/TiO2 exhibits higher Rhodamine B (RhB) decomposition efficiency than PVA/TiO2 samples. Specifically, RhB of around 50 % and 80 % were degraded by 13 d and 49 d for PVA/TiO2 samples with TiO2 of 10 %. RhB of around 50 % and 100 % were degraded at 3 h and 49 d for PVDF/TiO2 samples with TiO2 of 10 % and 20 %. Furthermore, the degradation rate for PVA/TiO2 and PVDF/TiO2 with TiO2 of 10 % is around 0.11 and 0.23. The difference in RhB photodegradation mechanism of PVA/TiO2 and PVDF/TiO2 webs was described and discussed in this paper. Hydrophobic PVDF/TiO2 was suspended in RhB liquid and ensured maximum contact between RhB pollutants and TiO2, whereas PVA/TiO2 completely dissolved in RhB liquid, which decreased the contact area and caused secondary pollution. In conclusion, hydrophobic PVDF/TiO2 webs with TiO2 of 10 % were suitable candidates for RhB photodegradation compared to PVA/ TiO2 webs.
KW - Electrospinning
KW - Microfiber
KW - Nanoparticles
KW - Photo-catalyzation
KW - Titanium dioxide
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85090960378&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jece.2020.103914
DO - 10.1016/j.jece.2020.103914
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85090960378
VL - 8
JO - Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering
JF - Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering
SN - 2213-3437
IS - 5
M1 - 103914
ER -