Conductive electrospun PANi-PEO/TiO₂ fibrous membrane for photo catalysis

The integration of electrospinning and electrospraying to prepare the fibrous catalytic filter membrane is demonstrated. The non-conductive polyethylene oxide (PEO) is blended with (±)-camphor-10-sulfonic acid (CSA) doped conductive polyaniline (PANi) for electrospinning. The conductive CSA/PANi-PEO composite fibers are produced upon electrospinning, which are used as the conductive collector for electrospraying process by which titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles (NPs) are sprayed and allowed to adsorb on the fibers. The degree of adsorption and dispersion of nano TiO₂ catalysts on the surface of the CSA/PANi-PEO fibers exhibit a stronger dependence on weight percentage (wt%) of PANi in PEO solution and the strength of electrical conductivity of the fibers used during electrospraying. CSA/PANi-PEO fibers as collector reduce the wastage of TiO₂ NPs during electrospraying to lesser than 5%. Among the three different composition of PANi studied, PEO with 12 wt% PANi yields very uniform diameter and beads-free fibrous structure with higher electrical conductivity. 12 wt% CSA/PANi-PEO fibrous membrane is found to support for greater dispersion of TiO₂ NPs. The photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared TiO ₂-PANi-PEO catalytic membrane is tested against the toxicant simulant 2-chloroethyl phenyl sulfide (CEPS) under the ultraviolet light irradiation. It is observed that the TiO₂ nanoparticles catalysts embedded PANi-PEO fibrous membrane decontaminated the toxicant CEPS significantly, which is due to uniform dispersion of the catalysts produced by the methodology.