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Updated: Jul 27, 2025

Preparation of Polyoxometalate-based Photo-responsive Membranes for the Photo-activation of Manganese Oxide Catalysts
Published on: August 7, 2018
Role of polymer template in crystal structure and photoactivity of Cu-TiO2 heterojunction nanostructures towards
Jun-Hyeok Lee1, Debabrata Chakraborty1, Sriparna Chatterjee2
1Institute for Applied Chemistry, Department of Fine Chemistry, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, 232 Gongneung-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul, 01811, Republic of Korea.
Abstract:
Exploring porous heterojunction nanomaterials as a photocatalyst for water depollution strategies towards environmental restoration is exceedingly difficult in the perspective of sustainable chemistry. Herein, we first report a porous Cu-TiO2 (TC40) heterojunction by using microphase separation of a novel penta-block copolymer (PLGA-PEO-PPO-PEO-PLGA) as a template through an evaporation induced self-assembly (EISA) method having nanorod-like particle shape. Furthermore, two types of photocatalyst were made with or without polymer template to clarify the function of that template precursor on the surface and morphology, as well as which variables are the most critical for a photocatalyst. TC40 heterojunction nanomaterial displayed higher BET surface area along with lower band gap value viz.2.98 eV compared to the other and these features make it a robust photocatalyst for wastewater treatment. In order to improve water quality, we have carried out experiments on the photodegradation of methyl orange (MO), highly toxic pollutants that cause health hazards and bioaccumulate in the environment. Our catalyst, TC40 exhibits the 100% photocatalytic efficiency towards MO dye degradation in 40 and 360 min at a rate constant of 0.104 ± 0.007 min-1 and 0.440 ± 0.03 h-1 under UV + Vis and visible light irradiation, respectively.
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