Facile Preparation and Characterization of Polyaniline and CeO2 Co-Decorated TiO2 Nanotube Array and its Highly Efficient Photoelectrocatalytic Activity

In the present work, polyaniline and CeO 2 co-decorated TiO 2 nanotube arrays (PANI/CeO 2 /TiO 2 NTAs) were facilely prepared by an electrochemical method. The as-prepared materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), an X-ray diffractometer (XRD), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The photoelectrocatalytic activity of as-prepared materials was investigated with tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) as the target analyte, and the data showed that PANI/CeO 2 /TiO 2 NTAs resulted in much higher photoelectrocatalytic efficiency than that of other materials. Under optimal conditions, the degradation rate of TBBPA reached a maximum value over 96% in 120 min under simulated solar irradiation. The results indicated that CeO 2 and PANI co-modified TiO 2 NTAs could narrow the band gap, expand the response from ultraviolet (UV) to visible region, increase the amount of active free radicals, inhibit the recombination rate of electron-hole pairs, and finally enhance the degradation efficiency towards TBBPA owing to the presence of Ce 3+ /Ce 4+ and PANI. Moreover, the degradation reaction followed the first-order kinetics, and degradation rates of the repeated experiments were all over 92% for ten runs. All these results indicated that this novel catalyst earned great potential as a powerful photoelectrocatalyst for the removal of TBBPA and other pollutants.