In-situ growth of porous conjugated polymers on TiO2 for enhancing the performance of visible light photocatalysis in water treatment

Abstract

Photocatalytic degradation of pollutants is one of the most promising methods as it is a safe and sustainable technology. However, the inertness of inorganic photocatalysts (TiO2) under visible light irradiation and the lack of enrichment of pollutants results in low photocatalytic performance. Through in-situ polymerization, commercial TiO2 coupled with a donor–acceptor (D-A) conjugated polymer (PyBz: Pyrene-based conjugated polymers) was prepared. When compared to PyBz, it boosted the photocatalytic degradation rate constant of bisphenol A (BPA) by a factor of 17, which is 101 times higher than pure TiO2. Detailed studies showed that the PyBz porous layer boosted BPA enrichment and the photocatalytic performance was further improved by the PyBz@TiO2 heterojunction interface, which sped up the passage of photogenerated electrons from PyBz to TiO2 and prevented the recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. This work provides an effective method to improve the photocatalytic activity of classic cheap semiconductors.