TiO2based nano-photocatalysis immobilized on cellulose substrates

This work mainly aims at exploiting the photocatalytic reactivity of nano-TiO2coatings immobilized oncellulose substrate to get self-cleaning textiles. The efficiency of three commercial nano-titania, in thephoto-degradation of organics, was investigated in different experimental conditions. In order to identifydifferent factors affecting the photocatalytic reactivity, various experimental settings were tested to rep-resent the self-cleaning application: TiO2nanoparticles in solution, TiO2-coated textile dipped in solutionand stain on TiO2-coated textile. The degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) was used as model reaction. Thephotocatalytic activity was evaluated by the determination of the kinetics of degradation, the photonicefficiency () and the photocatalytic activity expressed as percentage conversion. The different experi-mental set-ups let to assess interfaces where nano-TiO2played its photocatalytic activity and providedinformation on self-cleaning mechanism.