Encapsulation of CdO/ZnO NPs in PU electrospun nanofibers as novel strategy for effective immobilization of the photocatalysts

Secondary pollution is the main problem facing wide applications of the nanostructural photocatalysts. In other words, most of the reported nanostructural photocatalysts might effectively eliminate the organic pollutants: however they create a serious issue due to the separation difficulty of the utilized nanostructural photocatalysts from the treated water especially in the case of large scale processes. Recently, the photocatalytic activity of ZnO has been improved by doping with CdO, the resultant CdO/ZnO nanoparticles successfully utilized to eliminate the organic pollutants under the visible light. In this study, CdO/ZnO-doped polyurethane electrospun mat is introduced as an efficient and easy separable photocatalyst. Preparation of the introduced mat was achieved by using simple, effective, low cost and high yield technology: electrospinning. The introduced mat successfully catalyzes the photodegradation of methylen blue and reactive black 5 dyes as models of organic pollutants under the visible light radiation. Overall, the introduced mat is recommended to be used as low cost, efficient and healthily safe photocatalyst in the field of water treatment. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.