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A New Conducting Polymer with Exceptional Visible‐Light Photocatalytic Activity Derived from Barbituric Acid Polycondensation
Author(s) -
Keshavarzi Neda,
Cao Shaowen,
Antonietti Markus
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201907702
Subject(s) - photodegradation , photocatalysis , materials science , condensation polymer , rhodamine b , photochemistry , polymerization , visible spectrum , barbituric acid , benzoquinone , polymer , triethanolamine , polymer chemistry , organic chemistry , chemistry , catalysis , analytical chemistry (journal) , optoelectronics , composite material
A novel covalent, metal‐free, photocatalytic material is prepared by thermal polymerization of barbituric acid (BA). The structure of the photocatalyst is analyzed by using scanning electron microscopy, X‐ray diffraction, and infrared, UV–visible, and 1 H solution and 13 C solid‐state NMR spectroscopy. The photodegradation efficiency of BA thermally polymerized at different temperatures is tested by photocatalytic degradation of aquatic rhodamine B (RhB) dye under visible‐light irradiation. It is shown that heating BA at an optimized temperature of 300 °C, that is, still in the range that polymer‐like polycondensation takes place, results in a photocatalyst that can remove RhB with 96% photodegradation efficiency after 70 min exposure to visible light. The polycondensation reaction of BA is identified to process through precipitation of trimer units as primary building blocks. Reference experiments such as addition of scavengers and saturation with oxygen are studied to understand the photodegradation process. It is shown that the presence of triethanolamine, and excess of oxygen and p‐benzoquinone in the solution of RhB and photocatalyst (BA300) is not beneficial, but decreases the photodegradation efficiency.