Development of Free-Standing Titanium Dioxide Hollow Nanofibers Photocatalyst with Enhanced Recyclability

Abstract

Titanium dioxide hollow nanofibers (THN) are excellent photocatalysts for the photodegradation of Bisphenol A (BPA) due to their extensive surface area and good optical properties. A template synthesis technique is typically employed to produce titanium dioxide hollow nanofibers. This process, however, involves a calcination procedure at high temperatures that yields powder-form photocatalysts that require post-recovery treatment before recycling. Meanwhile, the immobilization of photocatalysts on/into a membrane has been reported to reduce the active surface area. Novel free-standing TiO2 hollow nanofibers were developed to overcome those shortcomings. The free-standing photocatalyst containing 0.75 g of THN (FS-THN-75) exhibited good adherence and connectivity between the nanofibers. The recyclability of FS-THN-75 outperformed the THN calcined at 600 °C (THN-600), which retained 80% of its original weight while maintaining excellent degradation performance. This study recommends the potential application of free-standing TiO2 hollow nanofibers as high potential novel photocatalysts for the treatment of BPA in wastewater.

Review of the recent advances on the fabrication, modification and application of electrospun TiO2 and ZnO nanofibers for the treatment of organic pollutants in wastewater

“…Devastatingly, BPA has estrogen-like and anti-androgen effects causing damages to different tissues and organs, including reproductive system, immune system and neuroendocrine system (Michałowicz, 2014;Ma et al, 2019). To eradicate such a contaminant, Jafri et al proposed the use of free-standing TiO 2 hollow nanofibers to photocatalytically mineralise BPA (Jafri et al, 2022). The process entails the attack of electron-rich C3 in the phenyl group of the BPA by HO • from the excited photocatalyst (see Figure 10).…”

In Situ Decoration of ZnSnO3 Nanosheets on the Surface of Hollow Zn2SnO4 Octahedrons for Enhanced Solar Energy Application

“…The published research studies have demonstrated that the three-dimensional hierarchical architectures assembled from the one-or two-dimensional nanostructured building blocks are an interesting class of materials with an abundant variety of tunable physicochemical properties [16]. Hierarchical porous hollow microstructures composed of single-crystalline two-dimensional nanosheets can provide low material density, good surface permeability, high surface area and electron transport rate, as well as high lightharvesting efficiency for application areas of catalysis and photovoltaic devices [17,18]. In this structure system, the material with micrometer-sized diameters can act as light scattering centers to increase the light harvesting of the photoanodes and photocatalysts, which is one of the crucial factors of improving the photovoltaic conversion efficiency of DSSCs and photocatalytic activity [19].…”