Nair Santhosh S, Chen Jianhong, Slabon Adam, Mathew Aji P
Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, Stockholm University Svante Arrhenius väg 16C SE-106 91 Stockholm Sweden
RSC Adv. 2020 Oct 8;10(61):37374-37381. doi: 10.1039/d0ra05961g. eCollection 2020 Oct 7.
Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are promising building blocks for water purification due to their high surface area, tuneability of surface charge and grafting of surface groups depending on the pollutants. In this report we have converted CNCs into photocatalysts, without altering the surface groups, by growth of TiO nanorods (NRs) and functionalization with Au nanocrystals (NCs) for enhanced light absorption. The control of the density of the NRs assures that the CNC surface and functionalities are accessible for the pollutant, followed by the photocatalytic degradation on the light absorption layer under solar illumination. This seed-mediated NR synthesis can be applied to realize a series of CNC-inorganic NR photocatalysts. The low temperature (90 °C compared to commonly reported growth at 150 °C) of the NR growth provides the opportunity to use nanostructured biopolymers as functional substrates for preparation of photocatalysts using a bio-inspired design.
纤维素纳米晶体（CNCs）因其高比表面积、表面电荷的可调节性以及根据污染物情况对表面基团进行接枝等特性，成为水净化领域颇具潜力的构建材料。在本报告中，我们通过生长TiO纳米棒（NRs）并使用金纳米晶体（NCs）进行功能化处理以增强光吸收，从而在不改变表面基团的情况下将CNCs转化为光催化剂。对NRs密度的控制确保了污染物能够接触到CNC表面及其功能基团，随后在太阳光照射下，光吸收层上会发生光催化降解。这种种子介导的NR合成方法可用于实现一系列CNC-无机NR光催化剂。NR生长的低温条件（与通常报道的150°C生长温度相比为90°C）为利用纳米结构生物聚合物作为功能底物，采用仿生设计制备光催化剂提供了契机。
