Highly Efficient Red Cabbage Anthocyanin Inserted TiO<sub>2</sub> Aerogel Nanocomposites for Photocatalytic Reduction of Cr(VI) under Visible Light

oleh: Haiyan Yang, Liang Jiang, Yizhou Li, Guoqing Li, Yepeng Yang, Jiao He, Jiaqiang Wang, Zhiying Yan

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2018-11-01

Deskripsi

In sharp contrast to conventional photosensitization methods in which the organic pigments were often adsorbed, herein we present a study on natural vegetable pigment inserted TiO<sub>2</sub> aerogel nanocomposites and we directly use red cabbage anthocyanin (RCP) as a structure-directing agent. It was found that pure TiO<sub>2</sub> aerogel nanocomposite did not exhibit any meaningful activity for photocatalytic reduction of Cr(VI). However, the photocatalytic reduction activity was greatly improved by the RCP inserted TiO<sub>2</sub> aerogel nanocomposites under visible-light irradiation, which was approximately 2- and 12.3-fold higher than that of TiO<sub>2</sub> aerogel conventionally photosensitized by RCP and pure TiO<sub>2</sub> aerogel nanocomposites, respectively. It also exhibited good stability and could be reused at least three times without losing a significant amount of its activity.