Bio-Doped Photoactive Hybrid Hydrogel for Synergistic Clean Water Production and Decontamination

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Environmental Science
• Photocatalysis

Background:

• Concurrent clean water generation and contaminant degradation from organic wastewater is a significant challenge.
• Conventional doping methods for photocatalysts can be complex and less sustainable.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel hybrid hydrogel for efficient solar-driven water evaporation and visible-light photocatalytic decontamination.
• To investigate the effect of biomass-derived doping on titanium dioxide properties.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a natural down fiber-doped titanium dioxide (DF-TiO2)/down fiber carbon (DFC) hybrid hydrogel.
• Characterization of material properties including bandgap, light absorption, and mechanical strength.
• Evaluation of solar evaporation rate and photocatalytic degradation of organic contaminants (methyl orange, rhodamine B, tetracycline) under simulated and natural sunlight.

Main Results:

• The DF-TiO2/DFC hydrogel exhibited a solar evaporation rate of 2.14 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹ and 93.1% methyl orange degradation efficiency under 1 sun illumination.
• The hydrogel demonstrated excellent stability and performance for various contaminants over 5 hours.
• Outdoor experiments confirmed high evaporation rates (2.25 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹) and efficient contaminant degradation.

Conclusions:

• The developed hybrid hydrogel offers a sustainable and efficient solution for solar water purification and wastewater treatment.
• Biomass-derived doping provides a promising route for enhancing photocatalytic materials.
• The material has potential applications in advanced solar evaporation and other photocatalytic processes.