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PCBM nanoparticles as visible-light-driven photocatalysts for photocatalytic decomposition of organic dyes

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Abstract

[6,6]-Phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl esters (PCBM) have emerged in recent years as important building blocks for photovoltaic devices. However, the potential of PCBM itself as a photocatalyst has not been reviewed. Here, we demonstrate PCBM nanoparticles (NPs) fabricated by the reprecipitation method as suitable photocatalysts for an effective visible-light-driven photocatalytic degradation for organic dyes. An enhanced catalytic performance of PCBM can be achieved by a simple annealing process. The present PCBM NPs outperform the state-of-the-art P25 TiO2 and therefore highlights its potential as promising small molecule organic semiconductor photocatalysts with high photocatalytic activity and good long-term stability.

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Acknowledgment

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JS18K05227, and Dynamic Alliance for Open Innovation Bridging Human, Environment and Materials from Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology of Japan (MEXT).

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Author notes

  1. Chanon Pornrungroj

    Present address: Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials (IMRAM), Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai, 980-8577, Japan

    Chanon Pornrungroj, Tsunenobu Onodera & Hidetoshi Oikawa

Authors
  1. Chanon Pornrungroj
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  2. Tsunenobu Onodera
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  3. Hidetoshi Oikawa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hidetoshi Oikawa.

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Supplementary material

The supplementary material for this article can be found at https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2018.229.

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Pornrungroj, C., Onodera, T. & Oikawa, H. PCBM nanoparticles as visible-light-driven photocatalysts for photocatalytic decomposition of organic dyes. MRS Communications 9, 321–326 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2018.229

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