Sol-hydrothermal synthesis of inorganic-framework molecularly imprinted TiO2/SiO2 nanocomposite and its preferential photocatalytic degradation towards target contaminant

Fang Deng, Yin Liu, Xubiao Luo, Shaolin Wu, Shenglian Luo*, Chaktong Au, Ruoxi Qi

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

69 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Inorganic-framework molecularly imprinted TiO2/SiO2 nanocomposite (MIP-TiO2/SiO2) was successfully prepared by sol-hydrothermal method using 4-nitrophenol as template. The morphology, structure, optical property, zeta-potential and photocurrent of MIP-TiO2/SiO2 were characterized. The adsorption performance and photocatalytic selectivity were also studied. MIP-TiO2/SiO2 shows higher adsorption capacity and selectivity than the non-imprinted TiO2/SiO2 (NIP-TiO2/SiO2). Kinetics results show that the adsorption equilibrium of 4-nitrophenol on MIP-TiO2/SiO2 is established within 20min, and the adsorption process obeys the pseudo-second-order model. Moreover, MIP-TiO2/SiO2 can completely degrade 4-nitrophenol within 30min, while NIP-TiO2/SiO2 takes 110min. It was found that the MIP-TiO2/SiO2 photocatalyst shows molecular recognition ability, leading to selective adsorption and molecular recognitive photocatalytic degradation of 4-nitrophenol. Furthermore, because of its inorganic framework, MIP-TiO2/SiO2 shows excellent reusability.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)108-115
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Hazardous Materials
Volume278
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Aug 2014

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Environmental Engineering
  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Waste Management and Disposal
  • Pollution
  • Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

User-Defined Keywords

  • Molecular recognition
  • Molecularly imprinted photocatalyst
  • Photocatalytic ability
  • Sol-hydrothermal method

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