Hydrophilic TiO2 porous spheres anchored on hydrophobic polypropylene membrane for wettability induced high photodegrading activities.
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.
Niu
Fang
F
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China.
Zhang
Le-Sheng
LS
Chen
Chao-Qiu
CQ
Li
Wei
W
Li
Lin
L
Song
Wei-Guo
WG
Jiang
Lei
L
D002384:Catalysis; D004396:Coloring Agents / Q000737:chemistry; D003224:Congo Red / Q000737:chemistry; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D054118:Nanospheres / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D010782:Photolysis; D011126:Polypropylenes / Q000737:chemistry*; D016062:Porosity; D014025:Titanium / Q000737:chemistry*; D017155:Wettability
D004396:Coloring Agents; D011126:Polypropylenes; C009495:titanium dioxide; D003224:Congo Red; D014025:Titanium