Enhancement of optical and photocatalytic properties of polyethylene oxide/polyvinylpyrrolidone blend reinforced with Ti3C2 MXene

In this paper, a polyethylene oxide/polyvinylpyrrolidone blend (PEO/PVP; 70/ 30 wt%) was manufactured via the solution casting process. The influence of varying content of Ti₃C₂ MXene on the structural, optical, and photocatalytic performance of PEO/PVP mixture against MB dye is studied. The absorbance of PEO/PVP was increased at the visible range after adding Ti₃C₂, which is attributed to the plasmon resonance in MXene. With increasing MXene ratios inside PEO/PVP, optical conductivity, optical dielectric constant, direct and indirect bandgaps, and refractive index are found to decrease. Furthermore, the effect of MXene on some dispersion parameters was estimated. The photocatalytic performance of a 1 cm² sheet of PEO/PVP blend against MB dye degradation was found to be influenced by MXene content. The degradation % of MB dye after 120 min increased from 48 % for pure blend to 51, 52, 54, and 61.6 % after incorporating 0.5, 1, 2, and 5 wt% of MXene, respectively. The rate constant of the photocatalytic degradation (k) value was enhanced from 0.0054 for pure PEO/PVP to 0.0057, 0.0058, 0.0063, and 0.008 after adding 0.5, 1, 2, and 5 wt% of MXene respectively, indicating MXene enhanced the degradation rate. The findings endorsed MXene to change structural, optical parameters and the photocatalytic performance of the PEO/PVP blend to be suitable for many applications.