Polydopamine film coating on polyurethane foams as efficient "sunscreen". Application to photocatalysis under UV irradiation

Polyurethanes are used in a large variety of commercial and technical applications, due to their high tensile strength, chemical resistance, good process ability and good mechanical properties. In particular, polyurethane open cell foams appear as ideal candidates to design original photoreactors. However, due to their high sensitivity to UV light, polyurethane foams can be not used directly as structured photocatalytic supports. In this work, we show that a simple thin polydopamine film coating on the foam surface plays a "sunscreen"role, protecting the polyurethane foam from UVA or UVC degradation and inhibiting volatile organic compounds' emanation. Furthermore, when loaded with TiO2 particles, these functionalized foams allowed developing an efficient photocatalytic system for the degradation of formic acid in water and the mineralization of acetaldehyde, n-heptane, toluene and acetone in air. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.