Fabrication of conductive ceramic composite for electrothermal-assisted photocatalytic degradation of frozen organic pollutants and indoor climate control

Abstract

Photocatalytic applications for frozen organic pollutants are limited by their poor de-icing performance. Herein, we develop a conductive ceramic (CC) composite with excellent electrothermal and photocatalytic performance for degradation of frozen organic pollutants. The introduction of carbonized graphite and multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) endows the composite with excellent electrothermal performance, which can quickly raise to 400 °C within 300 s at a voltage of 12 V. Furthermore, ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) endows the composite with outstanding photocatalytic performance. The catalytic ability of the composite increased as increasing the applied voltages. The obtained composite could reach a high degradation rate (95.8%) for methylene blue (MB) after 120 min under a 12 V power supply. The obtained composite exhibited an excellent photocatalytic performance for frozen MB solution, which could melt the solution quickly and then degrade the organic pollutant. The heat generated by the composite can effectively melt the frozen MB solution and promote its photocatalytic performance, thus considerably broadening the photocatalytic applications in cold region or in winter.