Zn²⁺/Sn⁴⁺ Co-modified Perylene Diimide Photocatalyst for Efficient Visible Light Phenol Degradation

Abstract

In industrial wastewater, phenolic pollutants are typical organic pollutants that are highly toxic and difficult to degrade. However, traditional photocatalytic technology commonly faces the bottleneck of high recombination rate of photogenerated charge carriers and low degradation efficiency. In this work, Zn²⁺/Sn⁴⁺-perylene diimide (PDI) photocatalysts were fabricated via a Zn²⁺/Sn⁴⁺ co-modified self-assembly strategy. The performance evaluation results showed that Zn²⁺/Sn⁴⁺-PDI-1 (denoted as ZSPDI-1) exhibited the optimal photocatalytic activity, achieving complete degradation of 5 mg/L phenol within 4 h, with a reaction kinetics constant 1.8 times that of pristine PDI. Mechanism analysis confirmed that Zn²⁺/Sn⁴⁺ can form coordination with carbonyl oxygen atoms in the PDI skeleton, effectively regulating the local coordination environment and band structure of PDI, significantly suppressing the recombination process of photo-generated carriers, and thus greatly enhancing the visible light catalytic activity. This work provides new insights and references for the practical application of PDI-based organic semiconductor photocatalysts in the treatment of phenolic industrial wastewater.

Keywords

Zn²⁺/Sn⁴⁺ co-modification / Self-assembly / Visible light / Phenol degradation

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