Water pollution is one of the most important issues in the world today. Wastewater containing organic pollutants produced from human activities is discharged into lakes, rivers and seas. Method and/or material to purify such natural water sources directly are desired. Application of photocatalysts is one of the most promising methods to eliminate the organic pollutants in wastewater. Photocatalytic reaction, which involves the generation of reactive radicals from the reaction onphotocatalyst's surface and their interaction with organic molecules, can degrade organic pollutants. TiO_2 is a well-known photocatalyst because it has low toxicity, high chemical stability and low cost. However, it cannot be activated efficiently since they sink in water, making it difficult to adsorb the UV light. In this work, we attempt to prepare a floating photocatalyst by combining TiO_2, Ni/P plating and a polypropylene (PP) hollow ball substrate. A Ni/P coating was electrolessly deposited on the PP hollow ball in the presence of TiO_2. The prepared photocatalyst was characterized using XRD and SEM-EDS. The PP hollow ball substrate was well covered with the Ni/P coating and Ti was confirmed to be contained in the Ni/P coating. In addition, the obtained photocatalyst floated when placed in water.
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