Mixed oxide-polyaniline composite-coated woven cotton fabrics for the visible light catalyzed degradation of hazardous organic pollutants

• Published in: Cellulose (London) 2020-09, Vol.27 (13), p.7823-7846
• Main Authors: Mousli, Fatima, Khalil, Ahmed M., Maurel, François, Kadri, Abdelaziz, Chehimi, Mohamed M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aniline; Bioorganic Chemistry; Catalytic activity; Ceramics; Chemical Sciences; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Composites; Computer simulation; Cotton; Cotton fabrics; Dip coatings; Dyes; Fabrics; Glass; Immersion coating; Nanoparticles; Natural Materials; Organic Chemistry; Original Research; Photocatalysts; Photodegradation; Physical Chemistry; Pollutants; Polyanilines; Polymer Sciences; Polymerization; Ruthenium oxide; Sustainable Development; Titanium dioxide
• ISSN: 0969-0239; 1572-882X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10570-020-03302-7

Clean water and sea free of organic pollutants are among the 17 United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this global concern, the design of efficient, stable and recyclable catalytic materials remains challenging. In this context, we designed a series of mixed oxide-modified cotton fabrics and their related composites and interrogated their propensity to catalyze the degradation of methyl orange (MO) (a model pollutant). More specifically, functional cotton fabrics (CF) coated with RuO 2 –TiO 2 based-photocatalysts were obtained by dip-coating method at neutral pH. A layer of Polyaniline (PANI) was prepared by in situ oxidative polymerization of the aniline monomer on 4-diphenylamine diazonium salt (DPA) modified-RuO 2 –TiO 2 nanoparticles (NPs) coated-CF. The modified CFs catalyzed photodegradation and mineralization of MO under visible light, which depended on polyaniline mass loading. The CF/RuO 2 –TiO 2 /DPA@PANI obtained by in situ polymerization was the best catalyst due to DPA adhesive layer for polyaniline to RuO 2 –TiO 2 , and the strong attraction force between cellulose OH groups and anilinium during polymerization. The photodegradation rate constant was 0.101, 0.0532, 0.0775 and 0.0828 min −1 for RuO 2 –TiO 2 /DPA@PANI, RuO 2 –TiO 2 , RuO 2 –TiO 2 /PANI and RuO 2 –TiO 2 /DPA/PANI coated-CFs, respectively. The catalytic activity is favored by the photoactive species (OH · , O 2 - ) which are formed by the excitation of electrons under visible light but also by the electronic exchanges at the RuO 2 //TiO 2 , RuO 2 –TiO 2 //PANI and RuO 2 –TiO 2 /PANI//CF interfaces. CF/RuO 2 –TiO 2 /DPA/PANI photocatalyst was stable under simulated sunlight and reusable three times. A mechanism is proposed to account for the efficient CF catalytic properties. Graphic abstract