Honeycomb-like V2O5 Based Films: Synthesis, Structural, Thermal, and Optical Properties for Environmental Applications

In the present study, new composite films consisting of hierarchical nanobelt V2O5 and polymer mixture were prepared via a simple casting method. The incorporation of 30 wt.% of V2O5 into the polymer matrix yielded a honeycomb like structure with abundant micro-voids (5.5 mu m), higher roughness average by 45.8%, and a higher root mean square roughness by 52%, which are beneficial for the enhancement of active surface area for dye adsorption. Furthermore, optical property studies have shown that the incorporation of V2O5 has made the nanocomposite film a suitable UV-visible light-sensitive material, and thus the application of films can be expanded towards photocatalytic degradation of various toxic pollutants such as nitrophenol, Cr(VI), antibiotects, and so on. Finally, the composite film exhibited enhanced thermostability in comparison to unmodified film, as confirmed by TGA and DSC analysis. The optimal film showed 96.3% removal efficiency and 27.02 mg/g adsorption capacity. The dye sorption performance of V2O5 based films is studied at various times, dosages, and initial dye concentrations. The experimental data more closely fit the Langmuir isotherm model (R-2 = 0.997) than the Freundlich, Temkin, and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherm models, demonstrating a monolayer adsorption mechanism. The MB adsorption process on V2O5 film was controlled by the chemical adsorption step, which was evidenced by the good-fitting of kinetic adsorption results to the pseudo second order model (R-2 = 0.991). The obtained results indicated that the V2O5 based films in this work are hopeful candidates for environmental applications.