A simple strategy to design 3-layered Au-TiO 2 dual nanoparticles immobilized cellulose membranes with enhanced photocatalytic activity

Cellulose-based photocatalysts of supported nanoparticles feature high photocatalytic activity but their facile construction and photocatalytic mechanism exploration are highly challenging. Herein, a simple structural design principle and synergistic properties of 3-layered porous cellulose-based membranes are used for catalytic degradation of Rhodamine B in an aqua system. The 3-layered Au-TiO cellulose membranes were fabricated through the tape method and the suction filtration process. The composite membranes with strong redox ability, high charge-separation efficiency, and wide absorption range could stimulate the solar-driven plasma evaporation of Au nanoparticles and the photocatalytic function of TiO nanoparticles simultaneously. As characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy, well-defined Au nanoparticles with an average size of 18.24 ± 3.17 nm were uniformly distributed on the TiO -CM surface. Compared with TiO -CM, TiO -Au-CM showed better catalytic degradation of organic dye. This work demonstrated that a simple strategy design of Au-TiO -CM could efficiently enhance the photocatalytic activity for the degradation of dyes in water.