Synergistic photocatalytic performance of chemically modified amino phthalocyanine-GPTMS/TiO2 for the degradation of Acid Black 1

Abstract A novel functional material, Zinc (II) tetra-[α-(p-amino)benzyloxyl]phthalocyanine (ZnPc) upon covalent integration with glycidoxypropyltrimethoxy silane modified TiO2 (GPTMS/TiO2) is prepared here for the first time in order to improve the visible photocatalytic activity of TiO2. The photocatalytic property of obtained ZnPc-GPTMS/TiO2 hybrid was investigated by carrying out the photodegradation of di-anionic azo dye Acid Black 1 (AB1) in aqueous solution under visible light irradiation. The results revealed that the ZnPc-GPTMS/TiO2 hybrid photocatalyst greatly enhanced the photodegradation efficiency compared to that of the pure TiO2. Particularly, 0.2 wt% ZnPc-GPTMS/TiO2 photocatalyst showed the highest photocatalytic activity with a degradation ratio of 95.4% of AB 1 after 120 min irradiation. The synergistic effect between ZnPc and TiO2 was responsible for the enhanced photocatalytic activity of the ZnPc-GPTMS/TiO2 hybrid, due to the efficient charge separation with electron injection from ZnPc to TiO2. The photocatalytic mechanism was proposed preliminarily.