Interface template synthesis of zein-based amorphous TiO2 composite microcapsules with enhanced photo-catalysis

Abstract In order to further enhance the application field of zein-based microcapsule. Zein-based amorphous TiO2 composite microcapsules (ZTCMs) were innovatively prepared from zein, tetra butyl ortho titanate (TBOT) and PEO106PPO70PEO106 (F127) via interface template synthesis. The Effects of TBOT amount on ZTCMs structures and photo-catalytic performances were mainly investigated. Chemical structure and microstructure of the obtained composite microcapsules were characterized mainly by fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), transmission electron microscope (TEM), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy disperse spectroscopy (EDS). The results show ZTCMs exhibited evident hollow structure with titanium dioxide (TiO2) wrapped in the outer layer. The average size of ZTCMs300 was approximately 4 µm, which increased as the increase of TBOT dosage. Significantly, ZTCMs showed excellent photo-catalytic ability on dyes, red wine and coffee alike. The degradation rate of Rhodamine B (RB) was more than 80% after irradiation for 5 h under sunlight. This study provides a facile method to fabricate natural-based photo-catalytic material, which will be a good candidate in many fields such as medicine, food packaging, leather and textile.