Abstract
Titanium dioxide-manganese oxide/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (TiO2-MnO2/MWCNT) nanocomposites were prepared by physical mixing of certain amounts of MWCNT with TiO2 and MnO2. Surface area analysis, X(_)ray diffraction, photoluminescence, scanning electron microscopy, and UV-vis absorption spectra were used to characterized the prepared photocatalysts. The photocatalytic activity of the nanocomposites in the degradation of phenol; as an example of organic pollutants was studied and the results showed that the photocatalytic activity of TiO2-MnO2 enhanced greatly upon the mixing with MWCNT. The effects of mass ratio of MWCNT to TiO2-MnO2 on the photocatalytic activity of TiO2-MnO2/MWCNT nanocomposites were discussed and the results showed that the TiO2-MnO2/MWCNT nanocomposites synthesized with 4% mass ratio of MWCNT to TiO2-MnO2 had the best photocatalytic activity.