Highly Efficient Red Cabbage Anthocyanin Inserted TiO(2) Aerogel Nanocomposites for Photocatalytic Reduction of Cr(VI) under Visible Light

In sharp contrast to conventional photosensitization methods in which the organic pigments were often adsorbed, herein we present a study on natural vegetable pigment inserted TiO(2) aerogel nanocomposites and we directly use red cabbage anthocyanin (RCP) as a structure-directing agent. It was found that pure TiO(2) aerogel nanocomposite did not exhibit any meaningful activity for photocatalytic reduction of Cr(VI). However, the photocatalytic reduction activity was greatly improved by the RCP inserted TiO(2) aerogel nanocomposites under visible-light irradiation, which was approximately 2- and 12.3-fold higher than that of TiO(2) aerogel conventionally photosensitized by RCP and pure TiO(2) aerogel nanocomposites, respectively. It also exhibited good stability and could be reused at least three times without losing a significant amount of its activity.