Porous poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) infused with commercially prepared titania nanoparticles has been previously developed for photocatalytic applications. The benchmark method of making this material has been by spraying an aqueous dispersion of titania onto a solution of PMMA, acetone, and Tween surfactant. This process leads to the coagulation of a porous PMMA/TiO2 material. Incorporation of the titania directly into the PMMA-acetone solution prior to coagulation with distilled water, produces porous composite photocatalytic materials that use less TiO2 to achieve higher methyl orange degradation rates and reduced titania loss during sample preparation and photocatalytic use. The highest degradation rate constant for the revised method was 0.0409 min-1, which is slightly higher than the highest degradation rate constant for the benchmark method at 0.0393 min-1; however, the titania amount required to achieve the rate constant for the benchmark method was over twice as large at 0.5174 g compared to the revised method at 0.2112 g. Thus these new materials are more photocatalytically active and more efficient in their use of the titania photocatalyst, which enables the production of more efficient reactor systems.

Porous PMMA-titania composites: Inverting the fabrication process to improve activity and durability

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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