Hierarchically Porous TiO<sub>2</sub> Photocatalyst Prepared by Additive Manufacturing and Dealloying for Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Degradation of Tetracycline
Yu Wei, Meng Chen, Sheng Guo, Yao Li, Zhenyu Zhang, Yin Xie, Chao Cai, Qingsong Wei
Abstract
Hierarchically porous photocatalysts exhibit superior light-harvesting capacity and enhanced photocatalytic activity. In this work, a facile method by combining additive manufacturing (AM) and dealloying was employed to prepare a hierarchically porous photocatalyst, namely, nanoporous-TiO 2 -encapsulating macroporous-double-gyroid-structure photocatalyst (TiO 2 @DGS). It was found that TiO 2 @DGS possessed deterministic macropores and interconnected nanopores, which offered efficient mass transfer channels and abundant active sites, respectively. Thus, TiO 2 @DGS showed excellent photocatalytic capability under ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) light irradiation and achieved a tetracycline degradation efficiency of over 90% within 60 min (photocatalytic rate constant k = 4.0 × 10 –2 min –1 ). Furthermore, TiO 2 @DGS exhibited excellent durability and reusability due to its stable three-dimensional structures. This work not only exemplifies the high performance of the prepared TiO 2 @DGS for environmental remediation but also provides an innovative approach to introduce tailored macrostructures into hierarchically porous photocatalysts through the incorporation of AM and dealloying.