Oyetade Joshua Akinropo, Machunda Revocatus Lazaro, Hilonga Askwar
School of Materials, Energy, Water and Environmental Science, Nelson Mandela African of Institution of Sciences and Technology PO Box 447 Arusha Tanzania
RSC Adv. 2023 May 22;13(23):15467-15489. doi: 10.1039/d3ra01243c.
The challenges associated with photocatalysts including their agglomeration, electron-hole recombination and limited optoelectronic reactivity to visible light during the photocatalysis of dye-laden effluent make it necessary to fabricate versatile polymeric composite photocatalysts, and in this case the incredibly reactive conducting polyaniline can be employed. The selection of polyaniline among the conducting polymers is based on its proficient functional impacts in composite blends and proficient synergism with other nanomaterials, especially semiconductor catalysts, resulting in a high photocatalytic performance for the degradation of dyes. However, the impacts of PANI in the composite matrix, which result in the desired photocatalytic activities, can only be assessed using multiple characterization techniques, involving both microscopic and spectroscopic assessment. The characterization results play a significant role in the detection of possible points of agglomeration, surface tunability and improved reactivity during the fabrication of composites, which are necessary to improve their performance in the photocatalysis of dyes. Accordingly, studies revealed the functional impacts of polyaniline in composites including morphological transformation, improved surface functionality, reduction in agglomeration and lowered bandgap potential employing different characterization techniques. In this review, we present the most proficient fabrication techniques based on the approach to achieve improved functional and reactive features and efficiencies of 93, 95, 96, 98.6 and 99% for composites in dye photocatalysis.
光催化剂存在一些挑战，包括在含染料废水的光催化过程中会发生团聚、电子-空穴复合以及对可见光的光电反应活性有限，因此有必要制备多功能聚合物复合光催化剂，在这种情况下，可以使用反应活性极高的导电聚苯胺。在导电聚合物中选择聚苯胺是基于其在复合共混物中的有效功能影响以及与其他纳米材料（特别是半导体催化剂）的有效协同作用，从而对染料降解具有高光催化性能。然而，聚苯胺在复合基质中产生所需光催化活性的影响，只能通过多种表征技术来评估，包括微观和光谱评估。表征结果在检测复合材料制备过程中可能的团聚点、表面可调性和反应活性提高方面起着重要作用，这些对于提高其在染料光催化中的性能是必要的。因此，研究通过不同的表征技术揭示了聚苯胺在复合材料中的功能影响，包括形态转变、表面功能改善、团聚减少和带隙电位降低。在这篇综述中，我们介绍了基于该方法的最有效的制备技术，以实现复合材料在染料光催化中具有改善的功能、反应特性和效率，分别达到93%、95%、96%、98.6%和99%。
