Facile synthesis of amidoximated PAN fiber-supported TiO2 for visible light driven photocatalysis

TiO 2 holds great promising for addressing the environmental issues via solar-to-chemical energy conversion. However, the large-scale application is greatly limited by its poor optical response (below 400 nm). In this study, we have successfully synthesized a visible light driven TiO 2 catalyst via a facile hydrothermal route by using amidoximated polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fiber as the support for the first time. The fibrous bidentate ligands not only facilitated the visible light harvesting of TiO 2 through ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) sensitization but also realized the incorporation of N atoms into the TiO 2 lattice during the preparation. Such a unique architecture endows the TiO 2 with high photocatalytic activity for degradation of several emerging organic contaminations under visible light irradiation (λ > 420 nm), which is dictated by both LMCT and N-doping mechanism. Furthermore, the fibrous support shows high resistance to active oxidizing species and imparts the as-prepared catalyst with excellent cycling stability, demonstrating the robustness of the constructed photocatalytic system for long-term applications. Our findings may offer a new strategy for designing promising visible-light-driven photocatalysts for environmental remediation.