Synchronous construction of a porous intramolecular D-A conjugated polymer via electron donors for superior photocatalytic decontamination

Zhongquan Wang; Xiaoshan Zheng; Ping Chen; Daguang Li; Qianxin Zhang; Haijin Liu; Jiapeng Zhong; Wenying Lv; Guoguang Liu

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.127379

Synchronous construction of a porous intramolecular D-A conjugated polymer via electron donors for superior photocatalytic decontamination

J Hazard Mater. 2022 Feb 15;424(Pt B):127379. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.127379. Epub 2021 Sep 29.

Authors

Zhongquan Wang¹, Xiaoshan Zheng¹, Ping Chen¹, Daguang Li¹, Qianxin Zhang², Haijin Liu³, Jiapeng Zhong¹, Wenying Lv¹, Guoguang Liu⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China.
² School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
³ Key Laboratory for Yellow River and Huaihe River Water Environment and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang 453007, China.
⁴ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China. Electronic address: liugg615@163.com.

PMID: 34655871
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.127379

Abstract

The development of conjugated polymers with intramolecular donor-acceptor (D-A) units has the capacity to enhance the photocatalytic performance of carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) for the removal of antibiotics from ambient ecosystems. This strategy addresses the challenge of narrowing the band gap of g-C₃N₄ while maintaining its high LUMO position. For this study, we introduced the above donor units into g-C₃N₄ to construct intramolecular D-A structures through the copolymerization of dicyandiamide with creatinine, which strategically extended light absorption into the green region and expedited photoelectron separation. The introduction of electron donor blocks kept the LUMO distributed on the melem, which maintained the high LUMO energy level of the copolymer with the potential to generate oxygen radicals. The as-prepared porous D-A conjugated polymer enhanced the photocatalytic degradation of sulfisoxazole with kinetic constants 5.6 times higher than that of g-C₃N₄ under blue light and 15.3 times higher under green light. Furthermore, we surveyed the degradation mechanism including the effective active species and degradation pathways. This study offers a new perspective for the synchronous construction of a porous intramolecular D-A conjugated polymer to enhance water treatment and environmental remediation capacities.

Keywords: Antibiotics; Donor-acceptor conjugated structure; Electron donor doping; G-C(3)N(4); Photocatalytic degradation.