Fabrication of a bifunctionalized photocatalyst/hydrogel composite for the degradation of particulate matter (PM)-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs)

Exploitation of a Poly Acrylic Acid-Fe3+ Hydrogel Photocatalyst with Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Features for the Efficient Removal of Organic Pollutants

“…With the development of industry and technology, human health and the earth’s ecosystem are seriously threatened by water contamination caused by the massive release of organic dyes, heavy metals, and antibiotics. − Hence, there is an urgent need to tackle the issue of wastewater pollution in effective ways. Currently, commonly available methods include physical adsorption, biodegradation, photocatalysis, and membrane filtration. − Among them, photocatalysis has been utilized to treat dyes in wastewater because of its simple operation, high efficiency, and recyclability. , Traditional inorganic semiconductors, such as TiO 2 , ZnO, SnO 2 , PbS, and BiVO 4 , are used as photocatalytic materials. − However, photocatalytic performance of the semiconductors is less satisfactory due to their poor adsorption property, low utilization of irradiation light, low separation efficiency of photogenerated charges (e – –h + pairs), and secondary pollution. Frequently, numerous substrates such as graphene, biomass-derived carbon, carbon nanotubes, and metal–organic frameworks have been employed to combine with the semiconductors for improving their adsorption capacity and the separation efficiency of photogenerated e – –h + pairs, thus improving the photocatalytic performance. − For instance, Yang et al adopted the cation-exchange strategy to fabricate the Cu 2+ -doped ZnS-rGO composite with excellent photocatalytic activity .…”