Thermosensitive polymers-TiO₂ hollow spheres composite for photocatalysis

Hollow spheres (HSs) are widely used as nanoreactors and catalysts due to their significantly large surface area, low density and high loading capacity. In this paper, new composites with PNVCL on the interior surface of mesoporous TiO2 hollow spheres (TiO2-HSs), which were named PNVCL@TiO2-HSs, were designed and prepared. After grafting PNVCL on TiO2-HSs, the light absorption range extended from less than 400 nm to less than 418 nm. Compared with traditional composites (TiO2-HSs@PNVCL), the new composites have good dispersibility in water at a wide temperature range. Thus PNVCL@TiO2-HSs can be used as photocatalysts and showed higher catalytic activity in photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B (RB) and Acid Red 57 (AR57) in wastewater. center dot OH radicals were confirmed to be the main active species and played a dominant role in the degradation, and the photocatalytic mechanism was discussed. The new composites provided new insights for exploring more diversified grafting methods.