Comparative Evaluation of Poly(4‐aminobenzylamine‐co‐aniline)/CuO Copolymer Nanocomposites and Homopolymer Analogues (P4ABA/CuO and PANI/CuO) for Methyl Violet Photodegradation and Antibacterial Applications

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ABSTRACT The development of multifunctional photocatalysts capable of simultaneously degrading organic pollutants and inhibiting bacterial growth is of considerable interest for sustainable wastewater treatment. In this work, novel poly(4‐aminobenzylamine‐co‐aniline)/CuO nanocomposites were synthesized by in situ oxidative polymerization and systematically compared with the corresponding PANI/CuO and P4ABA/CuO homopolymer nanocomposites. The influence of copolymer composition on the structural, optical, photocatalytic, and antibacterial properties was investigated. Structural and physicochemical characterization (FT‐IR, XRD, SEM, UV–vis, TGA, and DSC) confirmed the successful formation of the nanocomposites and the incorporation of CuO nanoparticles into the polymer matrices. Among the synthesized materials, the Copo(50/50)/CuO nanocomposite exhibited the lowest optical band gap (2.17 eV), indicating improved visible‐light absorption. Under visible‐light irradiation, this nanocomposite achieved 78% degradation of methyl violet within 120 min, outperforming the homopolymer‐based nanocomposites. Kinetic analysis showed that the degradation followed a pseudo‐first‐order Langmuir–Hinshelwood model, while recycling experiments demonstrated good photocatalytic stability over four consecutive cycles. In addition, the Copo(50/50)/CuO nanocomposite exhibited the highest antibacterial activity, producing inhibition zones of 15 mm against Escherichia coli and 13 mm against Pseudomonas aeruginosa . The enhanced performance is attributed to the synergistic interaction between the copolymer matrix and CuO nanoparticles, which promotes visible‐light absorption, facilitates interfacial charge transfer, and improves the availability of active sites. These findings demonstrate that poly(4‐aminobenzylamine‐co‐aniline)/CuO nanocomposites are promising multifunctional materials for photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes and antibacterial wastewater treatment.