An investigation of the biochar-based visible-light photocatalyst via a self-assembly strategy

In order to reduce the cost of commercial visible-light photocatalyst, a self-assembly strategy was deployed in producing a Ti-coupled N-embedded chicken feather biochar based catalyst (TINCs). The TINCs were manufactured by blending Ti-contained cross-link agent with hydrolyzed N-embedded chicken feather. These synthesis materials were well characterized with X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared, Scanning electron microscopy, Transmission electron microscope, Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, Surface area analysis and UV-vis absorption spectra. There were multilayered graphene oxide-like structures observed on TINCs, which were similar to the TiO2-graphene oxide material. Correspondingly, the TINCs had presented a 90.91% degradation rate of Rhodamine B under visible-light after 240 min. The corresponding TOC of the solution had dropped by 56.26%. Every slice of TINCs was constituted by multilayered graphene oxide like framework, interspersing with TiO2 nanoparticles uniformly. Some mechanisms were also analyzed. The cost analysis investigated that TINCs was promising in industrialization. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.