New hybrid perovskites/polymer composites for the photodegradation of organic dyes

Abstract Recently, many researchers have focused their attentions on associating perovskites with polymers in order to enhance their processability and rigidity while protecting their interesting environmental properties. Therefore, this work reports the successful development of two different Perovskites/polymer composites via a simple, rapid, low-cost and eco-friendly photopolymerization process under mild visible Light Emitting Diode LED@405 nm irradiation. The as-synthesized composites exhibit excellent photocatalytic activity towards the removal of the Acid Black dye from water, reaching approximately 95% under just 30 min of UV light irradiation. The fruitful hybridization between the perovskites and the acrylate monomer allowed the collect and reuse of this photocatalyst for several successive cycles without external usual time-consuming methods. Furthermore, the new as-fabricated shaped materials were fully characterized by numerous characterization techniques including, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (EDX), X-Ray Diffraction Analysis (XRD), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), which have verified on one side the successful immobilization of the perovskites into the polymer and the structural stability of the photocatalysts after hybridization and in the other side the high rigidity and thermal stability of the obtained molded composites.