A study of the photocatalytic properties of chitosan-TiO2 composites for pyrene decomposition

In this work, nano- and microcomposites of chitosan-TiO2 were developed for the photocatalytic decomposition of pyrene, which is one of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized by laser ablation, and their sizes were determined using the photon correlation spectroscopy method. Nano- and microcomposites based on chitosan with different TiO2particle contents were manufactured. The work studies the effect of nano- and microparticles of TiO2 in the composition of manufactured nanocomposites on the photodegradation of pyrene in model solutions of dimethylsulfoxideunderultravioletradiation. Toassess thedecreasein pyreneconcentrations in solutions, theauthors used themethodof luminescentanalysis. Based ontheresults of theconductedstudies,pseudo-first-orderkineticgraphs for pyrene degradation in solutions were plotted. The analysis proves the efficiency of the obtained chitosan-TiO2 compositesfor the photocatalytic decomposition of pyrene. In 60 minutes, 68% and 55% of pyrene were photodegraded under ultraviolet irradiation using chitosan-TiO2 composites with TiO2 nanoparticles and with TiO2 microparticles, respectively. The developed chitosan-TiO2 composites are prospective photocatalytic materials for the decomposition of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in aqueous media. The method of manufacturing composites does not require expensive equipment, and they are also convenient for performing photocatalytic reactions.