Simultaneous photothermal and photocatalytic MOF- derived C/TiO2 composites for high-efficiency solar driven purification of sewage

Lifen Su; Xiaoyu Liu; Wei Xia; Bin Wu; Changjiang Li; Bo Xu; Bin Yang; Ru Xia; Jianhua Zhou; Jiasheng Qian; Lei Miao

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.07.014

Simultaneous photothermal and photocatalytic MOF- derived C/TiO₂ composites for high-efficiency solar driven purification of sewage

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Nov 15;650(Pt A):613-621. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.07.014. Epub 2023 Jul 5.

Authors

Lifen Su¹, Xiaoyu Liu², Wei Xia², Bin Wu², Changjiang Li³, Bo Xu³, Bin Yang², Ru Xia², Jianhua Zhou⁴, Jiasheng Qian⁵, Lei Miao⁶

Affiliations

¹ Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Environment-friendly Polymer Materials, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, China; School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, China.
² Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Environment-friendly Polymer Materials, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, China.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, China.
⁴ Guangxi Key Laboratory of Information Materials, Engineering Research Center of Electronic Information Materials and Devices, Ministry of Education, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin 541004, China.
⁵ Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Environment-friendly Polymer Materials, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, China. Electronic address: qianjsh@ahu.edu.cn.
⁶ Guangxi Key Laboratory for Relativity Astrophysics, State Key Laboratory of Featured Metal Materials and Life-cycle Safety for Composite Structures, School of Physical Science and Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China. Electronic address: miaolei@gxu.edu.cn.

PMID: 37437441
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.07.014

Abstract

Solar-driven water evaporation is a promising technology of freshwater production to address the water scarcity. However, the photothermal material and the distilled water would be contaminated in the evaporation of wastewater including organic pollutants. In this work, MOF-derived C/TiO₂ composites (carbonized UiO-66-NH₂ (Ti)) with simultaneous photothermal and photocatalytic functions are designed for producing freshwater from sewage. With advantageous features of porous structure with large specific area, excellent sunlight absorption and super-hydrophilicity, the carbonized UiO-66-NH₂ (Ti) layer exhibits high water evaporation efficiency of 94% under 1.0 sun irradiation. Meanwhile, the layer can simultaneously decompose the organic pollutants with degradation efficiency of 92.7% in the underlying water during solar-driven water evaporation. This bifunctional material will provide a new approach for solar-driven water evaporation and photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutant synergistically.

Keywords: MOF; Organic pollutant; Photocatalytic; Photothermal; Solar evaporation.