Preparation and performance of PMMA/R-TiO₂ and PMMA/A-TiO₂ electrospun fibrous films

Abstract

In this paper, the PMMA/R-TiO2 and PMMA/A-TiO2 nanofiber membranes were prepared by electrospinning and its photocatalytic performance was studied. Accordinly, the obtained composites nanofibers were characterized by SEM, Porosity and TG in order to characterize morphologically the nanostructures and their distribution in the polymeric matrix, thermal properties. The R-TiO2 and A-TiO2 content of 5%, the minimum average fiber diameters of 436 nm and 409 nm, the fibers appear smooth and continuous, and the two kinds of composite fibers have higher porosities. The TG curve showed that PMMA/R-TiO2 nanofibers residual amount was higher than PMMA/A-TiO2, which indicated that R-TiO2 could improve thermal stability of the composites. It evaluated their photocatalytic activity by degradation of some dyes and methyl orange in an aqueous medium. The results showed that with the increase of TiO2 content, the composite nanofibers degradation rate of methyl orange improved. At the same conditions, when the TiO2 content was 10%, the photocatalytic degradation rate of PMMA/R-TiO2 and PMMA/A-TiO2 composite nanofibers were 21.8% and 51.3% respectively.