Visible-light-responsive photocatalysts can directly harvest energy from solar light, offering a desirable way to solve energy and environment issues. Here, we show that one-dimensional poly(diphenylbutadiyne) nanostructures synthesized by photopolymerization using a soft templating approach have high photocatalytic activity under visible light without the assistance of sacrificial reagents or precious metal co-catalysts. These polymer nanostructures are very stable even after repeated cycling. Transmission electron microscopy and nanoscale infrared characterizations reveal that the morphology and structure of the polymer nanostructures remain unchanged after many photocatalytic cycles. These stable and cheap polymer nanofibres are easy to process and can be reused without appreciable loss of activity. Our findings may help the development of semiconducting-based polymers for applications in self-cleaning surfaces, hydrogen generation and photovoltaics.

The development of visible-light responsive photocatalysts would permit more efficient use of solar energy, and thus would bring sustainable solutions to many environmental issues. Conductive polymers appear as a new class of very active photocatalysts under visible light. Among them poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) is one of the most promising conjugated polymer with a wide range of applications. PEDOT nanostructures synthesized in soft templates via chemical oxidative polymerization demonstrate unprecedented photocatalytic activities for water treatment without the assistance of sacrificial reagents or noble metal co-catalysts and turn out to be better than TiO2 as benchmark catalyst. The PEDOT nanostructures exhibit a narrow band gap (E = 1.69 eV) and are characterized by excellent ability to absorb light in visible and near infrared region. The novel PEDOT-based photocatalysts are very stable with cycling and can be reused without appreciable loss of activity. Interestingly, hollow micrometric vesicular structures of PEDOT are not effective photocatalysts as compared to nanometric spindles suggesting size and shape dependent photocatalytic properties. The visible-light active photocatalytic properties of the polymer nanostructures present promising applications in solar light harvesting and broader fields.