PHOTOCATALYTIC ACTIVITY OF TITANIUM DIOXIDECONJUGATED POLYMER COMPOSITE NANOPARTICLES SYNTHESIZED BY CHEMICAL OXIDATIVE POLYMERIZATION

An organo-inorganic photocatalytic nanocomposite material based on conjugated polymer, polyaniline (PANI) with TiO2 nanoparticles has been synthesized by performing in situ chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline with ammoniumpersulfate (APS) oxidant in the presence of TiO2 nanoparticles. Morphological and structural properties of TiO2-PANI nanocomposites were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), respectively. FT-IR spectra show that the nanocomposites are almost identical to the structure of PANI alone. The photocatalytic activities of the nanocomposites were evaluated by photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) under UV-light. The composites exhibited higher photocatalytic activity for the degradation of RhB than unmodified TiO2 nanoparticles, which is due to sensitizing effect of PANI