Su Bitao

Synthesis and characterization of conductive polyaniline/TiO2 composite nanofibers

Fibrillar conductive polyaniline/TiO2 (PANI/TiO2) nanocomposites with different TiO2 amount were synthesized with a template-free in situ polymerization method and characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and conductivity measurement. The morphology determination shows that the PANI/TiO2 composite nanofibers are relatively uniform with the diameter and length in the range of 20–40 nm and 390–420 nm respectively. It also shows that the TiO2 of the composite is rutile crystalline and PANI has some degree of crystallinity. The IR measurement indicates that there is a strong interaction between the PANI and TiO2 nanoparticles, and it has a beneficial effect on the thermal stability of the composite nanofiber. The conductivity of PANI/TiO2 composites changes with TiO2 amount and reaches an optimum value of 2.86 S/cm at 11.1 wt% TiO2.

Photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue on Fe3+-doped TiO2 nanoparticles under visible light irradiation

Fe3+-doped TiO2 composite nanoparticles with different doping amounts were successfully synthesized using sol-gel method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and ultravioletvisible spectroscopy (UV-Vis) diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS). The photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue was used as a model reaction to evaluate the photocatalytic activity of Fe3+/TiO2 nanoparticles under visible light irradiation. The influence of doping amount of Fe3+ (ω: 0.00%–3.00%) on photocatalytic activities of TiO2 was investigated. Results show that the size of Fe3+/TiO2 particles decreases with the increase of the amount of Fe3+ and their absorption spectra are broaden and absorption intensities are also increased. Doping Fe3+ can control the conversion of TiO2 from anatase to rutile. The doping amount of Fe3+ remarkably affects the activity of the catalyst, and the optimum efficiency occurs at about the doping amount of 0.3%. The appropriate doping of Fe3+ can markedly increase the catalytic activity of TiO2 under visible light irradiation.