A novel and effective strewn polymer-supported titanium dioxide photocatalyst for environmental remediation

A facile solvent cast method was explored for the development of a highly efficient and robust floating photocatalyst by strewing titanium dioxide nanoparticles directly onto the polystyrene matrix. the prepared titanium dioxide strewn polystyrene sheets were characterized by x-ray diffraction,optical microscopy,scanning electron microscopy and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. the experiments conducted to investigate the photocatalytic activity of the developed photocatalysts under ultraviolet (uv) light irradiation (254 nm) using methylene blue dye as a probe molecule showed that the photocatalysts were very effective in achieving discoloration of the aqueous solution. the maximum photocatalytic discoloration of the dye achieved by the optimized strewn photocatalyst,without any additional ph alterations,employing non-stirred and non-anchored conditions,was around 96 % after 6.5 h of uv irradiation. the photocatalytic activity of the optimized strewn sheet was found to be sustained upon reuse for three consecutive reaction runs and was in the range of 96-100 %.