Synthesis and Characterization of TiO<sub>2</sub>-MWCNTs<sub> </sub>Nanocomposit:  A Novel route for the efficient degradation of N, N-Dimethylformamide

In the present work, titanium dioxide and multiwall carbon nanotubes (TiO2-MWCNTs) based nanocomposite is prepared. The MWCNTs has been prepared through Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD), and TiO2 nanoparticles are synthesized by wet-chemical method. Morphology, average size, crystalline nature and optical behavior of the nanomaterial is measured through Scanning electron Microscopy (SEM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Uv-visible spectroscopy. Scanning Electron Microscopy revealed the existence of well-dispersed TiO2 nanoparticles (diameter ~90 nm) over the synthesized MWCNTs (tube outer diameter ~90-95 nm). It is observed from the uv-visible spectroscopy that an increase in the light absorption towards longer wavelength <400 nm also occurred for the TiO2-MWCNTs nanocomposites as compared to bare MWCNts. Finally, photocatalysis is performed over a toxic organic solvent N, N-Dimethylformamide (DMF) using synthesized TiO2-MWCNTs nanocomposite. It is found that TiO2-MWCNTs resulted in ~80% DMF degradation in 90 minutes. Owing to the better size distribution, crystalline nature and light absorption properties, the synthesized TiO2-MWCNTs performed well for the photocatalytic conversion of N, N-Dimethylformamide. This study also concludes that the TiO₂-MWCNts nanocomposites may also pave the way for broader environmental remediation based applications.