Integrated photocatalyst adsorbents based on porphyrin anchored to activated carbon granules for water treatment

Abstract

Integration of adsorption and photocatalysis processes can lead to several benefits in water treatment. Integrating well-known adsorbents with photocatalysts ensures that all the interesting components are preserved and helps to overcome the serious downsides of each material and technique when operated independently. In this work, we introduce a new concept of combining both absorption and photodegradation mechanisms using organic photocatalytic adsorbents for water purification. This was achieved by formulating photosensitizing hybrids based on a newly synthesized chloroindium (III) 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-acetamidophenyl) porphyrin (InTAAP) compound, anchored on oxygen functionalized coconut shell-based activated carbon granules supports. The fashioned integrated photocatalyst adsorbent hybrid (InTAAP(ACO)) was then studied for their adsorption and photodegradation efficiency using methylene blue dye, where InTAAP(ACO) showed excellent photocatalytic activity compared to ACO and unfunctionalized activated carbon granules (AC), with appreciably high and adsorption properties as AC and ACO.