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Titania/chitosan–lignin nanocomposite as an efficient photocatalyst for the selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol under UV and visible light
- Source :
- RSC Advances. 11:34996-35010
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), 2021.
-
Abstract
- Developing functional materials from biomass is a significant research subject due to its unique structure, abundant availability, biodegradability and low cost. A series of chitosan–lignin (CL) composites were prepared through a hydrothermal method by varying the weight ratio of chitosan and lignin. Subsequently, these CL composites were combined with titania (T) to form a nanocomposite (T/CL) using sol–gel and hydrothermal based methods. T/CL nanocomposites exhibited improved photocatalytic performance in comparison with sol–gel and hydrothermally prepared pristine titania (SGH-TiO2), towards the selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol (BnOH) to benzaldehyde (Bnald) under UV (375 nm) and visible light (515 nm). More specifically, the 75T/CL(25 : 75) nanocomposite (a representative photocatalyst from the 75T/CL nanocomposite series) showed very high selectivity (94%) towards Bnald at 55% BnOH conversion under UV light. Whereas, SGH-TiO2 titania exhibited much lower (68%) selectivity for Bnald at similar BnOH conversion. Moreover, the 75T/CL(25 : 75) nanocomposite also showed excellent Bnald selectivity (100%) at moderate BnOH conversion (19%) under visible light. Whereas, SGH-TiO2 did not show any activity for BnOH oxidation under visible light. XPS studies suggest that the visible light activity of the 75T/CL(25 : 75) nanocomposite is possibly related to the doping of nitrogen into titania from chitosan. However, according to UV-visible-DRS results, no direct evidence pertaining to the decrease in band-gap energy of titania was found upon coupling with the CL composite and the visible light activity was attributed to N-doping of titania. Overall, it was found that T/CL nanocomposites enhanced the photocatalytic performance of titania via improved light harvesting and higher selectivity through mediation of active radical species.
- Subjects :
- Nanocomposite
General Chemical Engineering
02 engineering and technology
General Chemistry
010402 general chemistry
021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology
7. Clean energy
01 natural sciences
0104 chemical sciences
Chitosan
Benzaldehyde
chemistry.chemical_compound
chemistry
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
Benzyl alcohol
Photocatalysis
0210 nano-technology
Selectivity
Nuclear chemistry
Visible spectrum
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 20462069
- Volume :
- 11
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- RSC Advances
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....40e54594593aceacde56395552969a9f