The titanium oxo complexes are widely studied, due to their potential applications in photocatalytic processes, environmental protection, and also in the biomedical field. The presented results concern the oxo complex synthesized in the reaction of titanium(IV) isobutoxide and acetylsalicylic acid (Hasp), in a 4:1 molar ratio. The structure of isolated crystals was solved using the single-crystal X-ray diffraction method. The analysis of these data proves that [Ti4O2(OiBu)10(asp)2]·H2O (1) complex is formed. Moreover, the molecular structure of (1) was characterized using vibrational spectroscopic techniques (IR and Raman), 13C NMR, and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis DRS). The photocatalytic activity of the synthesized complex was determined with the use of composite foils produced by the dispersion of (1) micrograins, as the inorganic blocks, in a polycaprolactone (PCL) matrix (PCL + (1)). The introduction of (1) micrograins to the PCL matrix caused the absorption maximum shift up to 425-450 nm. The studied PCL + (1) composite samples reveal good activity toward photodecolorization of methylene blue after visible light irradiation.
Keywords: acetylsalicylic acid; molecular structure; photocatalytic activity; spectroscopic characterization; titanium(IV) oxo-complex.