Photocatalytic degradation of PET coupled to green hydrogen generation using flexible Ni2P/TiO2/C nanofiber film catalysts

The increasing accumulation of waste plastics has a range of negative impacts on the land and marine environments. Solar-driven methods of converting waste into useful chemicals and green energy H2 are gaining attention due to their efficiency, stability and low cost. Here, flexible nickel phosphide/titanium dioxide/carbon nanofiber (Ni2P/TiO2/C NFs) film photocatalyst was prepared by electrospinning, heat treatment, hydrothermal method, and phosphate treatment. The obtained Ni2P/TiO2/C NFs presented a continuous homogeneous fibrous shape with TiO2 NPs incorporation into the carbon NFs and Ni2P NPs coating on the surface of the NFs. The film exhibited promising flexibility and excellent light absorption performance. As a result, the Ni2P/TiO2/C NFs film was utilized to reform polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into a variety of organic products and clean energy H2 under alkaline aqueous conditions. In addition, the flexible Ni2P/TiO2/C NFs film could be easily separated from the solution for recycling, and the stable hydrogen production performance was maintained after multiple cycles. This work applies an inexpensive and recyclable composite photocatalyst to the recycling of waste polyester, which is a crucial step towards the practical application of recyclable photocatalysts in resource recovery.