An Alternative Methodology for the Evaluation of Photocatalytic Activity of Polymeric Coatings by Monitoring Dye Degradation

This work provides an alternative method for evaluating the photodegradation behaviour of different types of dyes such as Methylene Blue, Rhodamine B, Congo Red, Metanil Yellow, and Malachite Green. In this methodology, the coating is dyed with the chosen colorant and two beams of light are combined and channelled to a spot on the dyed coating through an optical fibre, the first one from an ultraviolet (UV) source (which is the responsible of activating photocatalysis) and the second one from a Visible light source, which is employed to monitor changes in colour along the time. The photocatalytic coating selected for testing this methodology consists of a mat of electrospun poly (acrylic acid) (PAA) fibres that acts as base film, furtherly coated by using layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly technique for the immobilization of two different photocatalytic metal oxide precursors (TiO2 and Fe2O3) nanoparticles. The morphological characterization of the samples has been implemented by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), confocal microscopy, and water contact angle measurements in order to analyse the resultant thickness, roughness, electrospun fibre diameter, and wettability. The experimental results clearly demonstrate the validity of the methodology to measure the photocatalytic activity in all dyed coatings, although significant differences have been observed depending on the selected dye.