Polysulfur Copolymer as a Support Material for the Preparation of a Novel Multifunctional Photocatalytic Composite Material

Abstract

One-step addition of magnetic nanoparticles and titanium dioxide nanoparticles into polysulfur copolymer as cheap and available support was reported for the first time to prepare the magnetically separable heterogeneous catalyst, PolyS-MNP-TiO2. The photocatalytic activities of the PolyS-MNP-TiO2 composite material and its constituents were examined in the methylene blue (MB) degradation, textile-based wastewater simulant, exposed to solar light. Detailed characterization of the catalysts was performed with SEM, TEM, and EDX measurements. The photocatalytic activity of the resulting composite was figured out in the removal of methylene blue dye by using a solar simulator. Significantly, the as-prepared PolyS-MNP-TiO2 exhibits exceptional photocatalytic activity and total degradation of dye molecules was achieved in 60 min. Additionally, the prepared novel photocatalyst showed enhanced stability and reusability due to the magnetic behavior of the composite material and the same portion of catalyst was used in five successive tries without apparent loss in catalytic activity by eliminating long and work-loaded processes like filtration and centrifugation.