Prospects of using MOF/TiO2 nanocomposites for photocatalytic degradation of pesticides

Cleaning water bodies from fourth-generation pesticides is an urgent problem today. In this study, a series of nanocomposites based on MOF (NH2-MIL-125) and commercial titanium (IV) oxide P25 were synthesized and characterized, and their photocatalytic activity towards imidacloprid was determined. MOF and MOF/TiO2 composites were synthesized by a simple solvothermal method. The synthesized MOF and MOF/TiO2 composite were characterized by XRD, electron microscopy, UV-visible, infrared and FTIR spectroscopy, and TGA analysis. The studies showed that TiO2 and MOF have typical properties, and the properties of the composite were similar to those of MOF. The found band gap values of MOF and MOF/TiO2 composite (2.68 eV and 2.58 eV) indicate their potential use visible light photocatalytic processes. The photocatalytic activity study indicates a two-step degradation of imidacloprid, which is quite efficient for the MOF/TiO2 composite with the highest titanium (IV) oxide content, reaching almost 100% after 2 hour of photocatalytic reaction.