Facile and Novel Eco-Friendly Poly(Vinyl Alcohol) Nanofilters Using the Photocatalytic Property of Titanium Dioxide

This study aimed to develop a highly efficient nanofilter for capturing fine particles using electrostatic forces. Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), a water-soluble synthetic polymer, was selected as the main component of the filter because it can be easily fabricated by electrospinning. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanopowder with an anatase structure was applied to the nanofilters as it has the highest photocatalytic activity among the existing photocatalysts. PVA nanofilters fabricated by electrospinning could still be dissolved in water by hydrolysis. Therefore, heat treatment was performed to make the nanofilters stable, thereby forming C=O bonds by keto-enol tautomerization. Structural changes in the PVA nanofilter before and after heat treatment were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) analysis. As the TiO2 concentration increased, the fiber diameter of the PVA nanofilter decreased and a homogeneous fiber was obtained. The filtration efficiency and pressure drop also improved significantly, compared to those of the PVA-only nanofilter. Moreover, we observed eco-friendly decomposition of the PVA/TiO2 nanofilter into water and carbon dioxide by a photocatalytic reaction under UV irradiation.

这项研究旨在开发一种高效的纳米过滤器，以利用静电力捕获细小颗粒。选择聚乙烯醇（PVA），一种水溶性合成聚合物作为过滤器的主要成分，因为它可以通过静电纺丝轻松制造。具有锐钛矿结构的二氧化钛（TiO2）纳米粉已应用于纳米过滤器，因为它在现有的光催化剂中具有最高的光催化活性。通过静电纺丝制造的PVA纳米过滤器仍可通过水解溶解在水中。因此，进行热处理以使纳米过滤器稳定，从而通过酮-烯醇互变异构形成C ＝ O键。通过X射线衍射（XRD）和傅里叶变换红外（FT-IR）分析研究了热处理前后PVA纳米滤光片的结构变化。随着TiO2浓度的增加，PVA纳米过滤器的纤维直径减小，并获得了均匀的纤维。与仅使用PVA的纳米过滤器相比，过滤效率和压降也显着提高。此外，我们观察到在紫外线照射下，通过光催化反应，PVA / TiO2纳米过滤器可生态分解为水和二氧化碳。

Published: 2020

Journal ：ACS Omega

Impact Factor：There is no data at this time

Paper link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsomega.9b03944