Fabrication of a TiO2@porphyrin nanofiber hybrid material: a highly efficient photocatalyst under simulated sunlight irradiation

Duong Duc La, Anushri Rananaware, Hoai Phuong Nguyen Thi, Lathe Jones and Sheshanath V Bhosale

Abstract

The solar spectrum consists of 8% UV radiation, while 45% of solar energy is from visible light. It is therefore desirable to fabricate a hybrid material which is able to harvest energy from a wide range of photons from the sun for applications such as solar cells, photovoltaics, and photocatalysis. In this study we report on the fabrication of a TiO₂@porphyrin hybrid material by surfactant-assisted co-assembly of monomeric porphyrin molecules with TiO₂ nanoparticles. The obtained TiO₂@porphyrin composite shows excellent integration of TiO₂particles with diameters of 15–30 nm into aggregated porphyrin nanofibers, which have a width of 70–90 nm and are several µm long. SEM, XPS, XRD, FTIR, UV–Vis and fluorescence spectroscopy were employed to characterize the TiO₂@TCPP hybrid material. This material exhibits efficient photocatalytic performance under simulated sunlight, due to synergistic photocatalytic activities of the porphyrin aggregates in visible light and TiO₂ particles in the UV region. A plausible mechanism for photocatalytic degradation is also proposed and discussed