Enhanced degradation of BPA in water by PANI supported Ag/TiO ₂ nanocomposite under UV and visible light

PANI supported Ag@TiO ₂ nanocomposite was synthesized via oxidative polymerization of aniline on Ag@TiO ₂ . The Ag@TiO ₂ nanocomposite was synthesized by the photo reduction of Ag nanoparticles on hydrothermally synthesized TiO ₂ nanofibers. Raman analysis revealed that the anatase phase of TiO ₂ was synthesized showing typical peaks at 195 cm ^-1 , 396 cm ^-1 , 514 cm ^-1 , and 637 cm ^-1 . The incorporation of PANI, a carbonaceous material was confirmed by appearance of D-band and G-band in Ag@TiO ₂ -PANI that were located at 1505 cm ^-1 and 1603 cm ^-1 respectively. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed the anatase phase of TiO ₂ was synthesized. Transmission electron microscopy analysis (TEM) analysis revealed that TiO ₂ nanofibers were synthesized successfully and Ag nanoparticles of different sizes were deposited on their surface. X-ray Photon Spectroscopy (XPS) survey scan of the Ag@TiO _2- PANI-nanocomposite revealed that the nanocomposite was made from C, O, Ag, Ti, and N. DRS and Tauc's plot estimated the band gap of Ag@TiO ₂ -PANI to be 3.0 eV A comparative study of the photocatalytic performance of Ag@TiO ₂ -PANI catalyst showed better degradation performance under both conditions than pristine TiO _2, and Ag@TiO ₂ with a degradation of up to 99.7% under visible light irradiation. The degradation experiments showed that the reactive species that were dominant in the degradation of BPA were h ⁺ and O ^2- . Ag@TiO ₂ -PANI nanocomposite was re-used to degrade BPA for up to four cycles without losing much of its photocatalytic ability with a removal of at least 90% in the fourth cycle.