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Composites of π-stacking materials with low-dimensional metal oxide nanoblends for photocatalytic hydrogen production

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Abstract

Nanoblends of conjugated materials doped with low-dimensional metal oxides employing a scalable manufacturing process are discussed. The morphology, crystal structure and photocatalytic property of the nanoblends comprising of π-stacking materials namely polyaniline (PANI), polythiophene (PTh), graphene oxide (GO) doped with metal oxide Fe–TiO2 to form Fe–TiO2/PANI, Fe–TiO2/GO and Fe–TiO2/PTh nanostructures were studied in detail. The process includes wet chemical synthesis of the inorganic counterparts followed by mash blending technique to procure the low-dimensional nanoblends. The optical absorption characteristics of the above samples were studied by UV spectra. Furthermore, the samples are characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM-EDAX and TEM analysis. The obtained nanoblends were utilized as photocatalyst for hydrogen production and a rational comparison was made with the procured Fe–TiO2 nanoblends. The assessment of the photocatalyst was also carried out. Among the prepared nanoblends, Fe–TiO2/PTh has good photocatalytic activity and shows maximum efficiency of 15.83% towards photocatalytic hydrogen production which can be ascribed to increased surface area as a result of texturing attributes. The long-term stability of the photocatalyst was confirmed by the catalytic stability tests.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge RUSA 2, MHRD, Alagappa University for providing the necessary facilities to carry out this research. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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  1. Nano Functional Materials Lab, Department of Nanoscience and Technology, Science Campus, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, 630 003, India

    Kalyani Rajendran & Gurunathan Karuppasamy

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  1. Kalyani Rajendran
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Correspondence to Gurunathan Karuppasamy.

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Rajendran, K., Karuppasamy, G. Composites of π-stacking materials with low-dimensional metal oxide nanoblends for photocatalytic hydrogen production . J Nanostruct Chem 10, 169–177 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40097-020-00339-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40097-020-00339-9

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