An efficient visible light photocatalyst prepared from TiO₂ and polyvinyl chloride

An efficient visible light photocatalyst has been prepared from TiO₂ nanoparticles and a partly conjugated polymer derived from polyvinyl chloride (PVC). It was characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV–Vis DRS), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The visible light photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared photocatalyst was evaluated by the photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation. The XPS, FT-IR, and Raman spectra show that the partly conjugated polymer derived from PVC exists on the surface of the TiO₂ nanoparticles. The UV–Vis DRS, XRD, and TEM results reveal that the modification of the partly conjugated polymer can obviously improve the absorbance of the TiO₂ nanoparticles in the range of visible light and hardly affect their size and crystallinity. The visible light photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared TiO₂ nanocomposites is higher than that of commercial TiO₂ (Degussa P25) and comparable with those of visible light photocatalysts reported in the literature. Their visible light photocatalytic stability is also good. The reasons for their excellent visible light photocatalytic activity and the major factors affecting their photocatalytic activity are discussed.