Synthesized aerogel efficiently cleans up common water pollutants under visible light
Synthesized aerogel efficiently cleans up common water pollutants under visible light lead image
Organic dyes are a major source of water pollution, but common methods of removing organic dyes from water – such as silica aerogels with large surface areas – can only isolate but not degrade the compounds into harmless molecules. Wu et al. developed a method to incorporate dye-degrading materials into silica aerogels, enabling them to absorb and degrade a significant quantity of dyes in water.
The authors successfully created a silica gel containing the photoreactive material g-carbon nitride, which produces radical molecules that degrade dye molecules when hit with light. Notably, the g-carbon nitride grew uniformly both on the interior and exterior of the silica gel, enabling these composites to break down over 90 percent of methylene blue dye under low-power visible light.
“Through careful structural design, we have prepared novel g-C3N4/SiO2 aerogel composites with significantly improved the synergistic performance of adsorption and photocatalysis,” author Junfeng Li said. “Compared with traditional g-C3N4/SiO2 aerogel composites, our enhanced composite is highly efficient in degrading high concentrations of organic dyes, even under conditions of low dosage and with low-power light sources. Moreover, our study provides new insights into the underlying mechanisms of the synergy between these processes.”
The authors prepared silica aerogels using a typical sol gel process, introducing and calcining melamine to grow g-carbon nitride nanosheets within and on the surface of the aerogel. To analyze the aerogel’s physical and chemical structures, the authors used a combination of techniques including X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and tunneling electron microscopy.
Next, Li said the team plans to study how efficiently their gel removes mixed pollutants such as both organic dyes and antibiotics.
Source: “Exploration of novel g-C3N4/SiO2 aerogel composites for visible-light-driven degradation of methylene blue,” by Haonan Wu, Junfeng Li, Yue Ma, Qin Long, Peicong Zhang, Yi Huang, Jinshu Zhang, Yubin Li, and Chengye Yang, AIP Advances (2025). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0260097 .
