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Improving hole transfer of boron nitride quantum dots modified PDI for efficient photodegradation

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Abstract

In recent years, organic photocatalyst under visible-light absorption has shown significant potential for solving environmental problems. However, it is still a great challenge for constructing a highly active organic photo-catalyst due to the low separation efficiency of photogenerated carriers. Herein, an effective and robust photocatalyst perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic diamide/boron nitride quantum dots (PDI/BNQDs), consisting of self-assemble PDI with π–π stacking structure and BNQDs, has been constructed and researched under visible light irradiation. The PDI/BNQDs composite gradually increases organic pollutant photodegradation with the loading amount of BNQDs. With 10 mL of BNQDs solution added (PDI/BNQDs-10), the organic pollutant photodegradation performance reaches a maximum, about 6.16 times higher with methylene blue and 1.68 times higher with ciprofloxacin than that of pure PDI supra-molecular. The enhancement is attributed to improved separation of photogenerated carriers from self-assembled PDI by BNQDs due to their preeminent ability to extract holes. This work is significant for the supplement of PDI supramolecular composite materials. We believe that this photocatalytic design is capable of expanding organic semiconductors’ potential for their applications in photocatalysis.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21978276), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant Nos. 2652019157, 2652019158, and 2652019159).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Engineering Research Center of Ministry of Education for Geological Carbon Storage and Low Carbon Utilization of Resources, Beijing Key Laboratory of Materials Utilization of Nonmetallic Minerals and Solid Wastes, National Laboratory of Mineral Materials, School of Material Sciences and Technology, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 100083, China

    Shiqing Ma, Chundong Peng, Zeyu Jia, Yanmei Feng, Hao Ding & Daimei Chen

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, China

    Zhong-Yong Yuan

  3. Collaborative Innovation Center of Atmospheric Environment and Equipment Technology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring, and Pollution Control School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Kai Chen

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  1. Shiqing Ma
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Correspondence to Daimei Chen or Zhong-Yong Yuan.

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Ma, S., Peng, C., Jia, Z. et al. Improving hole transfer of boron nitride quantum dots modified PDI for efficient photodegradation. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng. 17, 1718–1727 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-023-2319-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-023-2319-7

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