Preparation And Photocatalytic Properties Of Bismuth Oxychloride(BiOCl)/copper Phthalocyanine(CuTNPc)/Electrospun Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) Nanofibers

Metal phthalocyanine(MPc)is a promising photocatalyst that has attracted considerable interests in recent years because of its intense absorption bands in the longer wavelength region of the visible-light in a solar spectrum.Therefore,MPc photocatalyst might use sunlight directly as the energy source to efficiently degrade various organic pollutants.With the development of nanotechnology,nanosized MPc has been attracted for its unique properties and promising application.However,nanoscal MPc still faces some challenges in practical application: Firstly,MPc powders were easily agglomerated for photocatalytic reaction in the solution of organic dye,which greatly reduces the active surface areas between photocatalysts and dye molecules;Secondly,nanosized metal phthalocyanine was not easily to separate and reuse due to its small size;Finally,However,similar to the other narrow band gap photocatalysts,MPc has a very strong recombination of photogenerated electron–hole pairs during the photocatalytic process.This is a major obstacle to increasing its photocatalytic efficiency.In this dissertation,we successfully fabricate MPc composites nanofibers and floating MPc heterojunction nanofibers photocatalysis by combining the electrospining technique and the solvothermal method.The specific research contents are as follows:1.CuTNPc/PAN composite nanofibers were successfully fabricated by using the electrospun PAN nanofibers as templates via a hydrothermal method.By tuning the experimental parameters including precursor concentration,the CuTNPc nanostructures grown on PAN nanofibers with different density could be further controlled.CuTNPc/PAN composite nanofibers exhibits better photocatalytic activity than pure CuTNPc powders for the degradation of Methyl orange(MO),Methylene blue(MB)and Rhodamine B(RB)under UV-Visible light irradiation.The electrospun nanofibers have nanosize diameter,extremely long length,and a macroscopic mat-like structure.This can provide sufficient reaction sites for photocatalytic reactions.Therefore,these nanofibers have both high surface area and a self-supporting macrostructure,both of which are beneficial for improving the photocatalytic activity of CuTNPc/PAN composite nanofibers.Moreover,the CuTNPc/PAN composite nanofibers photocatalysts with high photocatalytic activity could be easily separated and reused,which can greatly promote their industrial application to eliminate the organic pollutants from wastewater.2.In order to deal with the problem that MPc has a very strong recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs during the photocatalytic process.We successfully fabricated the BiOCl/CuTNPc/PAN heterostructures nanofibers.Nanostructured CuTNPc was immobilized on the surface of electrospun PAN via a solvothermal method.The obtained CuTNPc/PAN nanofibers were chosen as a template.The BiOCl nanosheets were grown on the template through a solvothermal process.As a result,BiOCl/CuTNPc heterostructures were immobilized on electrospun PAN via stepwise solvothermal method.And we can control the morphology and photocatalytic activity of BiOCl/CuTNPc/PAN heterojunction composite nanofibers by changing conditions.BiOCl/CuTNPc/PAN composite nanofibers exhibits the best photocatalytic activity than CuTNPc/PAN,BiOCl/PAN and their mechanical mixing for the degradation of Rhodamine B(RB)under UV-Visible light irradiation.This result indicates that the existence of heterojunctions can effectively increase the separation efficiency of photo-generated electrons and holes.The possible photocatalytic mechanism is also discussed in detail.The BiOCl/CuTNPc/PAN nanofibers did not need to be separated for reuse due to their flexible self-supporting properties originating from the PAN nanofibers.Moreover,the film-like BiOCl/CuTNPc/PAN nanofibers can float easily on the liquid and can maximize the absorption of sunlight during photocatalysis.It was expected that the BiOCl/CuTNPc/PAN nanofibers with high photocatalytic activity and easily separable property will possess great potential in the field of industrial applications and environmental remediation.