Flexible N-doped TiO2/C nanofibrous film-based photocatalytic fabric with high photocatalytic activity and excellent reusability

The flexible nitrogen (N) doped TiO2/C nanofibrous film (NTCf) was fabricated by a combination of electrospinning and annealing treatment. The BET surface area of the NTCf increases, reaches largest value, and then decreases slightly with increasing of N. And the NTCf-20 has a maximum BET surface area of 175.60 m2·g−1. These are beneficial to the absorption of dye by the photocatalyst. At the same time, the N doping could increase the light absorption of TiO2 and is favorable to the charges transfer of the carbon nanofibers, resulting in improving the photocatalytic activity of NTCf under visible light. As a result, all the NTCf showed excellent photocatalytic performance. Moreover, with the increase of N concentration, the photocatalytic activity of the NTCf increased, reaching the largest value before decreasing. And the highest photocatalytic degradation efficiency of Rhodamine B (RhB) was about 99.1% for 1 h by using NTCf-20. After that, the NTCf film was stuck on organza fabric to form a photocatalytic fabric by hot pressing. And the photocatalytic fabric with degradation efficiency of 98.5% was easily separated from the dye solution and possessed excellent reusability. It has huge potential application in pollutant disposal in flowing water.