• Gomes, Ac
• Parpote, P.
• Ribeiro, A.
• Landi, S.
• Carneiro, J.
• Pereira, Mfr
• Neves, Ic
• Soares, Osgp
• Fonseca, Am

Abstract

This work reports the synthesis of nanocomposite photocatalytic materials based on nitrogen-doped TiO2 nano, SiO2 and different percentages of HY zeolite (0, 12, 25 and 50%). These materials were characterized by using Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, N-2 adsorption-desorption, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The nanocomposites, which presented an energy band gap of about 3.03 eV, were immobilized on cotton fabric and their self-cleaning properties were investigated by decolourization of rhodamine B (RhB) dye in aqueous solution under simulated solar irradiation. The fabrics coated with the photocatalysts, containing and not containing zeolites, showed the same RhB decolourization (about 95%) after 5 h, excluding the situation where a large amount of HY (50%) was used in the nanocomposites. However, results obtained from high performance liquid chromatography analysis depicted that in the presence of the HY zeolite a more effective RhB degradation was achieved. In fact, even after the use of five consecutive cycles, the RhB decolourization remained high (about 85%). Generally, the photodegradation of RhB solution in the presence of cotton fabrics functionalized with TiO2 nano, TiO2 nano-SiO2 and TiO2 nano-SiO2-0.25 HY resulted in the formation of products that exhibited a similar cytotoxic effect when compared to the untreated RhB solution and subjected to the same tested concentrations and incubation times. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. on behalf of Brazilian Metallurgical, Materials and Mining Association.

Topics

• nanocomposite
• scanning electron microscopy
• x-ray diffraction
• Nitrogen
• infrared spectroscopy
• liquid chromatography