论文部分内容阅读
Although manganese oxides are known for their semiconductor characteristics,the photocatalytic performance of conducting polymer intercalated K-Bimessite (K-Bi) has not been explored till date.With the view to design a visible light driven organic-inorganic hybrid photocatalyst for rapid degradation of Bisphenol A (BPA),the present work reports the ultrasound-assisted green synthesis of K-Bi/polypyrrole (Ppy) nanohybrids.The loading of Ppy in K-Bi was confirmed by thermogravimetric analysis while the formation of organicinorganic hybrid was confirmed by infrared spectroscopy.K-Bi revealed a band gap of 2.8 eV while for the nanohybrids it was found to be ranging between 2.4 and 1.6 eV.X-ray diffraction studies confirmed partial intercalation of Ppy chains in the inter-layer space of K-Bi.High resolution transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy studies showed mixed morphology of K-Bimessite/Ppy nanohybrids.Rapid degradation of BPA was observed under visible irradiation in presence of K-Bi/Ppy nanohybrids and almost 90% degradation of 20 mg/L BPA solution was achieved within 120 min.The degradation was found to follow pseudo-first order kinetics and the degraded fragments were identified using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.Degradation pathway was proposed based on density-functional theory calculations of fukui index predicting the radical easyattacking (f0) and (f-) sites in BPA.