Preparation and photocatalytic activity of PANI/TiO2 composite film

A PANI/TiO2 composite film deposited on the glass surface was successfully prepared using sol-gel dip-coating technique and chemical oxidation method. The film was characterized using XRD, AFM, and UV. The result showed that the TiO2 film consists of both cuboid-shaped and anatase-phased TiO2 nanoparticles. The average grain size of TiO2 in the film was approximately 20 nm. After coating with PANI, the particle was changed into irregular spherical-shaped and the size was increased up to approximately 35 nm in diameter. UV-Vis spectroscopy analysis indicated that the coating of TiO2 with PANI would result in an enhancement of photocatalytic efficiency and an extension of the photoresponse of TiO2. The band gap of the PANI/TiO2 film was 3.18 eV. The photocatalytic property of the film was evaluated by the degradation of rhodamine-B. It was found that 67.1% and 83.2% of rhodamine-B could be degraded under sunlight and UV irradiation within 120 min using the PANI/TiO2 composite film as photocatalyst.