Hydrophilic TiO2 porous spheres anchored on hydrophobic polypropylene membrane for wettability induced high photodegrading activities

Nanoscale. 2010 Aug;2(8):1480-4. doi: 10.1039/c0nr00182a. Epub 2010 Jun 8.

Abstract

TiO(2) porous nanospheres on polypropylene (PP) films (TiO(2)/PP composite) are produced at ambient temperature. Particle/pore size match up is the key anchoring point to overcome the low affinity between hydrophilic materials and hydrophobic materials. With the hydrophilic TiO(2) catalyst evenly dispersed on a hydrophobic surface, the aqueous solution will selectively skip the substrate and wet the catalysts. Such a wettability-induced smart system maximizes the degrading activity of the TiO(2) catalyst. In photodegrading reactions, the resulting TiO(2)/PP composite film exhibits a 10 times higher activity in flow-type setup than the same TiO(2) catalyst in a traditional batch-type setup.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Catalysis
  • Coloring Agents / chemistry
  • Congo Red / chemistry
  • Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions
  • Nanospheres / chemistry*
  • Particle Size
  • Photolysis
  • Polypropylenes / chemistry*
  • Porosity
  • Titanium / chemistry*
  • Wettability

Substances

  • Coloring Agents
  • Polypropylenes
  • titanium dioxide
  • Congo Red
  • Titanium