Preparation and Characterization of Cu-Phthalocyanine/Titania/Organoclay Hybrid Adsorbed Materials with Photocatalytic Ability

The titania-pillared clay is known as one of materials with high adsorption and photocatalytic decomposition abilities against toxic organic compounds dissolved in water. However, its adsorption and photocatalytic decomposition abilities is not enough, yet. To improve the photocatalytic decompo- sition efficiency and add the photocatalytic decomposition ability under visible light irradiation, the preparation and characterization of the organoclay incorporating both titania nanocrystals and photosensi- tizer into the interlayer hydrophobic space was investigated. The hybridization of both titania nano-crystals and Cu-phthalocyanine derivatives as photosensitizer into organoclay interlayer hydropho- bic space could be succeeded by the consecutive intercalation method. The prepared hybrid materials exhibited the higher adsorption ability against bisphenol A dissolved in water than that of the commercial available titania nanocrystals in the dark. As a result from the photodecomposition experiment of bisphenol A performed by using the present hybrid materials under UV and/or visible light irradiation, it was found that the present hybrid materials had also high photocatalytic decomposition ability under visi- ble light irradiation, along with that under UV and visible light irradiation.