A stable porous vessel for photocatalytic degradation of Azocarmine G dye

Abstract

Porous nanocomposite of polystyrene (PS) is fabricated by non-solvent induced phase separation, and with the addition of ZnO nanomaterials through electrospinning, the different evaporation rates of solvent/non solvent mixture causes phase separation and improves the porosity of the fiber. The spherical particles of ZnO are uniformly distributed within the polymer chains, creating a networking effect that further restricts the motion of the PS chains and higher pores generation. The specific surface area and average pore size values were respectively 48 m2/g and 82.5 nm for the PS/ZnO with 3 wt% filler concentration, much higher than the neat polymer (23 m2/g and 61.1 nm). The PS/ZnO composite showed 95% degradation efficiency when irradiated with natural sunlight for Azocarmine G dye. This study addresses the correlation of porous structural characteristic with the sunlight driven photocatalysis as the porous sites provide active centers for the catalysis to take place. The porous structural integrity is maintained, and improved with ZnO addition and promising catalysis efficiency is achieved. Moreover, the ZnO imparts excellent antibacterial activity against S. aureus bacteria and the PS/ZnO fibers show good functional and structural stability.