LAUSR

The present study reports the synthesis of polycarbazole (PCz)-decorated TiO2 nanohybrids via in situ chemical polymerization of carbazole monomers in TiO2 dispersions. The ratio of the polymer in the nanohybrid varied between 0.5 and 2 wt %. The synthesized nanohybrids were characterized using infrared and diffuse reflectance spectroscopies, whereas the morphology was analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. XRD revealed changes in the peak corresponding to the d(001) plane of TiO2 owing to the interaction between the two components. TEM confirmed the formation of PCz-decorated nanohybrids. Amido Black 10B (AB-10B) was chosen as a model dye for the degradation studies. Sonophotocatalytic degradation of the dye was studied by varying the catalyst and dye concentrations. Results showed that PCz/TiO2 nanohybrids exhibited a complete degradation of AB-10B dye within a short span of 60–90 min, which was faster than pure TiO2 and the reported decorated TiO2 nanohybrids synthesized by other authors. The degraded dye fragments were identified using liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LCMS). By varying the loading of PCz in TiO2, the nanohybrids could be tuned to achieve visible light-driven degradation.