Porous Bamboo Charcoal/TiO₂ Nanocomposites: Preparation and Photocatalytic Property

Here we report a novel surface modified bamboo charcoal/TiO 2 (SMBC/TiO 2 ) nanocomposites with high adsorption and photocatalytic property. SMBC were prepared by a wet oxidization method of cheap natural bamboo charcoal (BC) with good absorbent and chemical stabilities. After modification, high density of carboxyl groups were generated on the surface of BC, thus SMBC particles can be easily dispersed in water and have stronger interactions with TiO 2 nanoparticles, which ensure SMBC uniformly coated on TiO 2 . And SMBC/TiO 2 nanocomposties have much higher specific surface area than BC/TiO 2 , which could offer higher adsorption capacity. The saturated adsorption capacity of SMBC/TiO 2 is approximately 1.6 times, 12.1 times as great as BC/TiO 2 and pure TiO 2 , respectively. The synergetic effect of adsorption and catalysis endow SMBC/TiO 2 composites much higher photocatalytic activity than BC/TiO 2 and pure TiO 2 for MB degradation, and the rate constant for MB photocatalytic degradation of SMBC/TiO 2 was almost 7 times and 6 times as large as BC/TiO 2 and pure TiO 2 , respectively.