Construction of a floating photothermal-assisted photocatalytic system with a three-dimensional hollow porous network structure.

Solar energy is the inevitable choice to achieve the low-carbon, green, and circular development of society, and photocatalysis technology is one of the shining pearls. To make full use of the solar spectrum and solve the shortcomings of the recovery difficulty of powdery materials and the loss of activity due to the influence of the external environment, it is possible to construct floating materials using melamine sponges to recover photocatalytic materials quickly. At the same time, floating materials can absorb oxygen in the air for the generation of active groups, effectively solving the problem of less O2 in the water. The carbon-based materials have excellent light absorption properties, high thermal conductivity, and excellent photothermal conversion efficiency and are ideal for constructing floating photothermal photocatalytic systems. As an example, we combined a cheap melamine sponge with urea, prepared a hollow porous network structure g-C3N4 (HPNCN) with a high specific surface area by direct thermal shrinkage method, and then attached the CoO to its surface by hydrothermal method to form a heterojunction with a suitable band gap. Various characterization tests verified the photothermal-photocatalytic properties. Among them, 30% CoO/HPNCN has the best photocatalytic degradation effect on tetracycline (TC), and the removal rate is 88.1%. After five cycles, the removal rate is only 5% lower than the initial, indicating that it has good stability and recyclability. We conducted an active ingredient capture experiment, ESR, and LC-MS analysis to clarify the intermediates and reaction mechanism of TC photocatalytic degradation. On this basis, the ECOSAR program and QSAR method were used to analyze the environmental toxicity of TC and its intermediate products. These results provide a broad prospect for the potential application of the floating photothermal-photocatalysis system in antibiotic pollution control and its application in other fields.

Photocatalytic Self-Fenton System of g-C3N4-Based for Degradation of Emerging Contaminants: A Review of Advances and Prospects.

The discharge of emerging pollutants in the industrial process poses a severe threat to the ecological environment and human health. Photocatalytic self-Fenton technology combines the advantages of photocatalysis and Fenton oxidation technology through the in situ generation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and interaction with iron (Fe) ions to generate a large number of strong reactive oxygen species (ROS) to effectively degrade pollutants in the environment. Graphite carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is considered as the most potential photocatalytic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) photocatalyst for H2O2 production due to its excellent chemical/thermal stability, unique electronic structure, easy manufacturing, and moderate band gap (2.70 eV). Hence, in this review, we briefly introduce the advantages of the photocatalytic self-Fenton and its degradation mechanisms. In addition, the modification strategy of the g-C3N4-based photocatalytic self-Fenton system and related applications in environmental remediation are fully discussed and summarized in detail. Finally, the prospects and challenges of the g-C3N4-based photocatalytic self-Fenton system are discussed. We believe that this review can promote the construction of novel and efficient photocatalytic self-Fenton systems as well as further application in environmental remediation and other research fields.

Study of Bi-directional detection for ascorbic acid and sodium nitrite based on Eu-containing luminescent polyoxometalate.

Eu-containing polyoxometalate K13Eu(SiMoW10O39)2·28H2O (Eu-SiMoW) owns the stimu-chromic and photoluminescence properties. An ingenious test of ascorbic acid (AA) and sodium nitrite (NaNO2) was carried out based on the dual properties of Eu-SiMoW in solutions. First, the redox reaction of Eu-SiMoW and AA generated the blue reduced Eu-SiMoW, accompanied by fluorescence quenching; then the redox reaction of the reduced Eu-SiMoW and NaNO2 made Eu-SiMoW back to its original pale yellow state with red luminescence. Accordingly, the content of AA and NaNO2 could be measured by the reversible change of color and luminescence of Eu-SiMoW. This bi-directional detection method is first discovered and proven to be a simple and effective method for the detection of AA and NaNO2. The proposed method exhibited a linear response range (LRR) from 0.1 to 0.9 mmol L-1 with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.53 µmol L-1 in UV-vis spectra and 4.67 µmol L-1 in luminescence spectra for AA as well as a LRR from 0.05 to 0.4 mmol L-1 with a LOD of 1.16 µmol L-1 in UV-vis spectra and 5.39 µmol L-1 in luminescence spectra for NaNO2. Moreover, the fluorescence switching of Eu-SiMoW could be realized by reacting with reductant and oxidant through the redox reaction. The detection mechanism is considered as a fluorescence resonance energy transfer process between discolor component SiMoW and luminescence component Eu in Eu-SiMoW.

A multilayer assembly of two mixed-valence Mn16-containing polyanions and study of their electrocatalytic activities towards water oxidation.

Herein, two mixed-valence Mn16-containing polyanions, (Mn16) [MnIII10MnII6O6(OH)6(PO4)4(A-a-SiW9O34)4]28- (Mn16-Cs) and [MnIII4MnII12(OH)12(PO4)4(A-a-SiW9O34)4]28- (Mn16-Rb), were successfully fabricated on an indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass electrode and a glass carbon electrode (GCE) by a layer-by-layer assembly method. Moreover, four composite films, i.e. [PDDA/Mn16-Cs]n, [PDDA/Mn16-Rb]n, [Mn16-Cs/Rubpy]n, and [Mn16-Rb/Rubpy]n (PDDA: poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride); Rubpy: tris(2,2'-bipyridyl)ruthenium(ii) chloride; n = 1-10), were constructed for comparison and characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry (CV), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Their electrocatalytic activities towards water oxidation were studied under the same experimental conditions. The results of the controlled experiments indicate that (1) all the four films exhibit expected electrocatalytic activities towards water oxidation; (2) the electrocatalytic activity of Mn16-Cs is better than that of Mn16-Rb in solution and composite films; and (3) the electrocatalytic activities of the composite film [Mn16/Rubpy]n are better than those of the composite film [PDDA/Mn16]n.