Novel bacterial cellulose-TiO2 stabilized Pickering emulsion for photocatalytic degradation

Photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants is an effective, energy-saving and renewable technique. In this study, functional oil/water (O/W) Pickering emulsions with excellent photocatalytic activity were prepared by the adsorption of nano-titanium oxide (TiO 2 ) into bacterial cellulose (BC). The results indicate that the novel hybrid structure enhanced the interfacial diffusion rate of BC-TiO 2 and further improved the mechanical strength of the obtained interfacial layer. Stable medium internal phase emulsions (MIPEs) and high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) were also obtained by using low-loading hybrid particles. The investigation of morphology and rheological properties indicated that the shear-thinning and solid-like behaviors of the obtained emulsion systems. The photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B was much faster in the emulsion system than p-TiO 2 suspension, which was stabilized by BC-TiO 2 (45 min, 90%) with respect to the case of TiO 2 (90 min, 90%) and an aqueous system containing TiO 2 (120 min, 53%). Therefore, this paper gives new insights to the application of BC as an efficient scaffold for loading TiO 2 coupling at the oil–water interface, thus paving the way for the development of sustainable catalyst.