Coral-Like Polyaniline/TiO2 Porous Micro-Composite Material: Facile Preparation, Characterization, and Enhanced Visible-Light Photocatalytic Activity

Coral-like polyaniline/TiO2 porous micro-composite material (PANI/TiO2) was synthesized via a facile method. For comparison, pure TiO2 nanoparticles (TiO2) and neat PANI powders (PANI) were also prepared. Crystalline structure, chemical composition, morphology and thermal stability of the as-prepared samples were investigated by XRD, EDS, FT-IR, FE-SEM, and TGA techniques. The photocatalytic oxidation of orange II (OII) in aqueous solution under visible light irradiation was performed to evaluate the photocatalytic activity of the three samples. The results showed that the PANI/TiO2 exhibited the maximum photodegradation efficiency among all the samples. The reason for the enhanced photocatalytic performance was attributed to the rapid photoinduced charge separation caused by the synergy between PANI and TiO2. Furthermore, the yield of the PANI/TiO2 was calculated as high as 92.4%, indicating that this in situ polymerization method is an efficient method for the synthesis of the PANI/TiO2 composite photocatalysts.