Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ), polythiophene and polythiophene/TiO 2 were prepared by sol-gel and solid-state reaction methods. Water-free iron(III) chloride (FeCl 3 ) was used as an oxidant. The phase composition, morphology and the spectral properties of the products were characterized by XRD, TEM, UV-Vis and FT-IR techniques. The photocatalytic activity of the products was evaluated by the degradation of methyl orange under sunlight irradiation. TEM results showed that the polythiophene/TiO 2 composite particles were well dispersed, rod-like shaped with 20 9 80 nm dimensions. UV-Vis analysis indicated that the absorption edge of polythiophene/TiO 2 was 605 nm. Compared with the unmodified TiO 2 and bare polythiophene, polythiophene/TiO 2 exhibited largely enhanced activity for the photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange under sunlight irradiation. A degradation efficiency of methyl orange of 85.6% could be obtained within 120 min. The sensitization mechanism of polythiophene for the TiO 2 photocatalyst is discussed briefly.

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