Fabrication of a flexible graphene-TiO₂/PDMS photocatalytic film by combining air atmospheric pressure glow discharge treatment

This work reported a universal and effective route to fabricate a kind of flexible photocatalyst film to broaden the scope of application (wearable photocatalyst devices for example). This technology roadmap is premised on the air atmospheric pressure glow discharge (AAPGD) pretreatment. Through treating poly (dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) with AAPGD technique, the PDMS surface is functionalized by hydroxyl groups and the contact angle gains a minimum value of about 26.0, which make it easy to be decorated for the desired efficiency. Then the PDMS surface can be endowed with photocatalytic activity through wet-chemical method without the bondage of inherent hydrophobic-nature. Owing to the hydrophilic surface, the graphene can be inserted to improve the photocatalytic performance and the flexibility of graphene was kept. Compared with the photocatalysts films without AAPGD pretreatment, the photocatalytic performance of films suffering from AAPGD pretreatment is much higher. Therefore this flexible film strategy, based on AAPGD pretreatment, is of great significance to design flexible photocatalysts films, pushing forward the development of wearable photocatalyst devices.