Photocatalytic antibacterial low density polyethylene (LDPE)–TiO2 films are produced by an extrusion
method and tested for photocatalytic oxidation activity, via the degradation of methylene blue (MB) and
photocatalytic antibacterial activity, via the destruction of Escherichia coli. The MB test showed that
extruded LDPE
films with a TiO2 loading 30 wt.% were of optimum activity with no obvious decrease in
film strength, although the activity was less than that exhibited by the commercial self-cleaning glass,
Activ1. UVC pre-treatment (9.4 mW cm2) of the latter
film improved its activity, with the level of surface
sites available for MB adsorption increasing linearly with UVC dose. Although the MB test revealed an
optimum exposure time of ca. 60 min photocatalytic oxidation activity, only 30 min was used in the
photocatalytic antibacterial tests in order to combine minimal reduction in
film integrity with maximum
film photocatalytic activity. The photocatalytic antibacterial activity of the latter
film was over 10 times
that of a non-UVC treated 30 wt.% TiO2 film, which, in turn was over 100 times more active than Activ1.
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