Functionalized Cellulose for the Controlled Synthesis of Novel Carbon–Ti Nanocomposites: Physicochemical and Photocatalytic Properties Hamad, Hesham Bailón García, Esther Morales Torres, Sergio Carrasco Marín, Francisco Pérez Cadenas, Agustín Francisco Maldonado Hodar, Francisco José Cellulose decrystallization Phosphorus functionalities Carbon–Ti nanocomposites TiP2O7 crystals Orange G Photocatalysis H.H. gratefully thanks a predoctoral fellowship from Erasmus Mundus (Al-Idrisi II). E.B.-G. is grateful to MINECO for her postdoctoral fellowship (FJCI-2015-23769). S.M.-T. acknowledges the financial support from the University of Granada (Reincorporación Plan Propio). “Unidad de Excelencia Química Aplicada a Biomedicina y Medioambiente” of the University of Granada (UEQ - UGR) is gratefully acknowledged for the technical assistance. Carbon–Ti nanocomposites were prepared by a controlled two-step method using microcrystalline cellulose as a raw material. The synthesis procedure involves the solubilization of cellulose by an acid treatment (H3PO4 or HNO3) and the impregnation with the Ti precursor followed of a carbonization step at 500 or 800 ◦C. The type of acid treatment leads to a different functionalization of cellulose with phosphorus- or oxygen-containing surface groups, which are able to control the load, dispersion and crystalline phase of Ti during the composite preparation. Thus, phosphorus functionalities lead to amorphous carbon–Ti composites at 500 ◦C, while TiP2O7 crystals are formed when prepared at 800 ◦C. On the contrary, oxygenated groups induce the formation of TiO2 rutile at an unusually low temperature (500 ◦C), while an increase of carbonization temperature promotes a progressive crystal growth. The removal of Orange G (OG) azo dye in aqueous solution, as target pollutant, was used to determine the adsorptive and photocatalytic efficiencies, with all composites being more active than the benchmark TiO2 material (Degussa P25). Carbon–Ti nanocomposites with a developed micro-mesoporosity, reduced band gap and TiO2 rutile phase were the most active in the photodegradation of OG under ultraviolet irradiation. 2020-06-26T12:00:41Z 2020-06-26T12:00:41Z 2020-04 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Hamad, H., Bailón-García, E., Morales-Torres, S., Carrasco-Marín, F., Pérez-Cadenas, A. F., & Maldonado-Hódar, F. J. (2020). Functionalized Cellulose for the Controlled Synthesis of Novel Carbon–Ti Nanocomposites: Physicochemical and Photocatalytic Properties. Nanomaterials, 10(4), 729. [doi:10.3390/nano10040729] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/62746 10.3390/nano10040729 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 3.0 España MDPI