Photocatalytic degradation of polypropylene film using TiO2-based nanomaterials under solar irradiation

Publication date: 5 November 2017
Source:Materials & Design, Volume 133
Author(s): Rajni Verma, Sachchidanand Singh, M.K. Dalai, M. Saravanan, Ved V. Agrawal, Avanish Kumar Srivastava
The aim of this research is the reduction of environmental pollution by degrading polypropylene (PP) film in an eco-friendly way via TiO2-based nanomaterials (NMs) under solar irradiation. PP was mingled with TiO2-based NMs; TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) and its nanocomposite, (TiO2-reduced Graphene Oxide: TiO2-rGO) individually by a facile solution casting technique to comparatively study its photodegradation before and after 130h of solar irradiation in triplicate manner. The photocatalytic degradation of PP, by TiO2-based NMs, is affirmed by various advanced characterization tools such as XRD, FT-IR, FE-SEM and ToF-SIMS. XRD depicts the phase transformation. FT-IR confirms the appearance of carbonyl group with higher carbonyl index leading to efficient photodegradation of PP by TiO2-rGO nanocomposite as compared to TiO2 NPs. Microstructural investigation by FE-SEM reveals the augmented degradation of PP matrix on the surface of TiO2-rGO nanocomposite through the formation of cavity (diameter: ~500nm) at the interface. The prominent peaks in ToF-SIMS affirm generation of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) followed by photodegradation. The mechanism of enhancement of photocatalytic degradation by TiO2-rGO nanocomposite has also been presented in detail. The obtained degraded fragments of PP, thus, are biodegradable and facilitate to reduce the environmental pollution by this eco-friendly route.

Graphical abstract

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