Preliminary Study of Various Photoactive Nanomaterials for Oil Cleaning Application

In this paper, nanomaterials were tested for oil cleaning application. Comparative studies were performed on pure titanium, titanium dioxide nanotube, titanium dioxide nanoparticles embedded in electrospun polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) fiber that was heat treated and not heat treated, and titanium-cobalt oxide in PVP that was heat treated. The ability of these materials of decomposing and removing oil under photon energy excitation was evaluated. Ultraviolet (UV) light was used as the photon energy source to excite these nanostructured materials. It is found that the titanium oxide nanotube has the highest photon responsive activity. Other nanomaterials including heat treated oxide containing PVP fiber also shown the function of oil removal.