Title : The effect of iron doping on the photocatalytic efficiency of SiC nanofibers and their composite with polyaniline
Abstract:
Organic dyes in the wastewater stream is hazardous to the aquatic life and the terrestrial life. Photocatalytic activity is one of the most appealing process to convert harmful organic dyes into harmless small molecules in the presence of the UV light or sunlight. The photocatalytic activity of SiC nanofibers were studied in the context of the present study and it was aimed to improve their photocatalytic efficiency through doping with iron atoms. In addition to doping, SiC nanofibers were compounded with a conducting polymer, polyaniline. Under the sunlight or the UV light, valence band electrons of SiC are excited to the conduction band, forming photoexcited electron-hole pairs. SiC exhibits high recombination rate of the photoexcited charge carriers. To suppress the recombination rate of the photoinduced charge carriers, SiC was doped with iron atoms and/or compounded with polyaniline. SiC was doped with iron atoms though the wet impregnation technique. Polyaniline/SiC composites were prepared by in situ chemical oxidative polymerization process. The photocatalytic activity of SiC and its composite with polyaniline was evaluated through analyzing the degradation of a model dye, methylene blue, under UV light irradiation. The photoinduced electrons of SiC may be trapped by Fe atoms, suppressing the recombination process. On the other hand, polyaniline may accept the photoexcited holes of SiC and transfer its photoinduced electrons to SiC, reducing the recombination rate. Both effects enhanced the photocatalytic activity of SiC. Polyaniline composite, including 15 wt.% of doped SiC nanofibers, exhibited the highest photocatalytic degradation efficiency of almost 22% after 300 min. of UV light irradiation. Iron doped SiC and its composite with the conducting polymer could be considered as a promising photocatalyst to remove organic dyes from the wastewater.
Audience take-away:
- SiC is a new example for photocatalyst. Its application potential was studied in this study and will be presented in the conference.
- Compounding the photocatalyst with a conducting polymer is an alternative method to reduce the recombination rate of the photoinduced charge carriers. The composite application also enhance the reusability of the photocatalyst.
- Application of photocatalytic degradation in the wastewater treatment is also new topic. The audience coul study on different photocatalyst for the wastewater treatment purpose.
- Doped SiC and polyaniline/SiC composite could be considered as a promising photocatalyst to remove organic dyes from the wastewater.
