Flexible N-doped TiO2/C nanofibrous film-based photocatalytic fabric with high photocatalytic activity and excellent reusability

The flexible nitrogen (N) doped TiO 2 /C nanofibrous film (NTC f ) was fabricated by a combination of electrospinning and annealing treatment. The BET surface area of the NTC f increases, reaches largest value, and then decreases slightly with increasing of N. And the NTC f -20 has a maximum BET surface area of 175.60 m 2 ·g −1 . These are beneficial to the absorption of dye by the photocatalyst. At the same time, the N doping could increase the light absorption of TiO 2 and is favorable to the charges transfer of the carbon nanofibers, resulting in improving the photocatalytic activity of NTC f under visible light. As a result, all the NTC f showed excellent photocatalytic performance. Moreover, with the increase of N concentration, the photocatalytic activity of the NTC f increased, reaching the largest value before decreasing. And the highest photocatalytic degradation efficiency of Rhodamine B (RhB) was about 99.1% for 1 h by using NTC f -20. After that, the NTC f film was stuck on organza fabric to form a photocatalytic fabric by hot pressing. And the photocatalytic fabric with degradation efficiency of 98.5% was easily separated from the dye solution and possessed excellent reusability. It has huge potential application in pollutant disposal in flowing water.