Photocatalytic applications of poly(methyl methacrylate)/TiO2as visible light responsive photocatalyst in decomposition of trypan blue dye and bacteriological tudy

Since the past two decades, polymer/TiO2nanocomposites as nantechnological products have vast potential in the commercialization and also in business, especially in water treatment [1,2], selfcleaning [3] and antibacterial surfaces [4]. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) due to a broad range of excellent properties, such as safe to use and no secondary pollution to environment has attracted much attention for the past few decade as the most promising photocatalyst [5]. Photocatalysis has also been used extensively to kill microbial species and the decomposition of pollutants in water and air [4].Some of the reasons for the interest combining photocatalysis and polymers material is minimizing photocatalyst loss, availability of longer contact time, ease of posttreatment recovery and very advantageous for human health [6,7]. PMMA as a hydrophobic polymer with low surface energy was chosen as matrix to immobilize of TiO2nanoparticles,because of UV transparency and easy mouldable [1,2,8].TiO2can be applied as an effective photocatalyst just when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) irradiation [9]. To overcome the above mentioned drawback, continuous efforts are being investigated to look for visible light as an alternative source of illuminationfor TiO2photocatalyst [1]. Several approaches for making visible-light-active TiO2are dye sensitization, modification by noble metal and so forth [10-13]. Some of the various attempts is being carried out to prepare polymer/TiO2nanocomposite which among them 2microemulsion method as soft template improve the dispersion of TiO2nanoparticles in polymer matrix due to avoid the particle agglomeration [2].In order to providing a novel route for fabrication of polymer-TiO2nanocomposite and to confirm the necessity of visible light photocatalyst applicability, a very simple process based on ionic liquid-microemulsion system is conducted in this work [2]. By using the ionic liquid based microemulsion system, a polymer-TiO2nanocomposite can be deduced which not only is visible light active photocatalyst without any additive, but also improves the recombination of photogenerated holes and electron as the major limitation of polymer-TiO2mediated photocatalysis. Because water is an essential and natural resource for life (for all of species) on our planet which it is usually contaminated with hazardous and toxic noxious waste such as dyes [14,15].So the elimination of microbial and organic pollutants in water and Industrial effluents has long been a serious problem of the environmental protection issues and global concerns.As per our pervious literature survey, the PMMA/TiO2anocomposite as heterogeneously photocatalysis method is superior route than the conventional dye removal methods [2,16,17].In progressing of our previous research work in waste water treatment [2], we considered in this study the photodegradation of trypan blue (TB) as a diazo dye compound that is characterized by the presence of the azo group (N=N-) as chromophoreas illustrated in scheme. 1.As far as we know,Elfekyet al.[18]investigated photodecomposition of TB dye under sunlight by Au-TiO2(0.08g)/PMMA thin film nanocomposite, that was prepared via TiO2suspended in PMMA dissolved in tetrahydrofuran (THF). They observed that degradation efficiency was 90% by AuTiO2(0.08g)/PMMA thin film after 1.75 h at pH = 2 and 87% in 2.5 h by TiO2 (0.08g)-PMMA thin film under similar conditions.Hence, in continuation of our research works on microemulsion systems as soft template for nomaterials synthesis [2, 19-21]the chief object of the present examination is to focus on the some environmental applications of PMMA/TiO2nanocomposite, prepared by ionic liquid based microemulsi

Keywords:

TiO2 , Microemulsion , Photodecomposition , Trypan Blue , Antibacterial activity