Aerogel for Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Degradation

Photocatalysis is one of the effective ways to degrade pollutant antibiotics. Agar is used as the adsorption module to provide abundant pore structure. Carbon dots (CDs) are selected as light energy conversion components. Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) is used as the main material of the catalyst. Agar/CDs/g-C₃N₄-functionalized aerogel with a unique 3D pore structure is assembled. The Agar/CDs/g-C₃N₄ aerogel shows the highest photocurrent density, which is 3.7 times that of agar, 2.4 times that of 3-g-C₃N₄ and 1.6 times that of Agar/g-C₃N₄ aerogel. Compared with 3-g-C₃N₄ and Agar/g-C₃N₄ aerogel, which can completely remove AMX after 75 min, Agar/CDs/g-C₃N₄ aerogel can degrade amoxicillin (AMX) completely after 45 min of illumination. The reason is that Agar/CDs/g-C₃N₄ aerogel has a larger specific surface area, richer functional groups, a wider spectral range, higher photocurrent density and better carrier migration and separation efficiency. It is a good strategy with which to combine the effects of each component in the ternary system for the efficient photocatalysis of organic pollutants.