Carbon fibers decorated with TiO2 nanoparticles for photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye

Abstract

This report demonstrates the development of carbon fibers (CFs) decorated with TiO 2 nanoparticles (NPs) as an efficient photocatalyst for the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) as a model dye. Carbon fibers were produced by carbonization of polyacrylonitrile fibers, previously produced by centrifugal spinning. Subsequently, the CFs were decorated with TiO 2 NPs (CFs@TiO 2 ) by tailored soaking protocol using aqueous TiCl 4 solution with different concentrations (0.025, 0.05, 0.1, and 0.2 M). SEM analyses revealed that soaking in TiCl 4 produced a smooth, conformal, continuous TiO 2 nanoparticulate coating with thickness increasing from 40.4 ± 21.2 to 257.9 ± 63.9 nm with increasing TiCl 4 concentration. X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy confirmed the anatase nature of TiO 2 . Photocatalytic decomposition rates of MB were assessed under UV light illumination for all CFs@TiO 2 samples, and it was revealed that the lowest amount of TiO 2 NP on C yielded the highest rates. The synergistic interaction between CFs and TiO 2 NPs with a uniform morphology and a well-crystalline anatase structure, present in an optimal amount of fiber bodies, is the key reason for the remarkable photocatalytic performance. This work shows that C fibers decorated with an optimal amount of TiO 2 NPs have a great potential as an effective photocatalytic material.