Strong Hollow Spherical La₂NiO₄ Photocatalytic Microreactor for Round-the-Clock Environmental Remediation

This work reports a moderate round-the-clock route to treating organic pollutants by utilizing a La₂NiO₄ hollow-sphere microreactor. A glycerol-assisted solvothermal route followed by an annealing process was applied for fabricating the catalyst. Both the physicochemical properties and the catalytic performance of the as-obtained microreactor for treating pollutants were discussed. The microreactor exhibited a strong ability to degrade phenol and anionic dyes in the absence of light irradiation, owing to its high surface area and positively charged surface. With the aid of visible-light irradiation, the degradation rate of the organic pollutants could be further accelerated due to the light multireflection in a hollow structure, which enhances the utilization of light. The present work indicates that the hollow-sphere La₂NiO₄ microreactor is effectively energy saving for environmental remediation.