Photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutant with polypyrrole nanostructures under UV and visible light

By Xiaojiao Yuan, D. Floresyona, P. Aubert, Thanh‐Tuân Bui, S. Remita, Srabanti Ghosh, F. Brisset, F. Goubard, H. Remita. Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 2019

153 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Conjugated polymer nanostructures (CPNs) emerge as a new class of photocatalysts for organic pollutant degradation under UV and visible light. Polyprrole (PPy), as a conjugated polymer, exhibits a wide range of applications. We present here the first demonstration of employing pure PPy nanostructures as a very efficient photocatalyst for water depollution. PPy nanostructures were synthesized in hexagonal mesophases (used as soft templates) by chemical polymerization (PPy-NS-c), obtained by radiolysis (PPy-NS-γ), and synthesized without any template via chemical method (PPy-bulk) as bulk. The different PPy samples were characterized by SEM, TEM, FTIR and UV–vis absorption spectroscopy. The photocatalytic activity of both PPy nanostructures (PPy-NS-c and PPy-NS- γ), which remain very stable after several cycles, was evaluated for the degradation of organic pollutant in aqueous solution (phenol and methyl orange were taken as a model pollutant). PPy nanostructures show high photocatalytic activity under both UV and visible light while bulk PPy (PPy-bulk) has no appreciable activity. PPy-NS-c present the highest activity for photodegradation of phenol under UV light, while PPy-NS-γ exhibit the best photocatalytic activity under visible light. We demonstrate here that the nanostructuration of these polymers is an important factor for their application in photocatalysis.

Subfields: Polymers and Plastics, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/764b38a84a056de8c3c898282d12abade5830bda