Efficient Photodegradation of High Concentration Dye Pollutants by 3‐OH‐Ph‐C≡C‐Cu Under Sunlight Irradiation

ABSTRACT This work designed and synthesized a series of functionalized copper phenylacetylides (R‐Ph‐C≡C‐Cu) for highly efficient degradation of dye pollutants with light irradiation. Different growth modes caused by the introduction of different functional groups were studied and demonstrated. Among all the prepared samples, 3‐OH‐Ph‐C≡C‐Cu performed the highest activity for methyl orange (MO) degradation under full spectrum light irradiation. Under full spectrum light and sunlight irradiation, the highest photodegradation capability of MO with the concentration of 600 mg/L can be achieved to 595.73 mg/g, which is about 30 times higher than the raw Ph‐C≡C‐Cu, 6.5 times higher than that by P25, and 18 times higher than that by g‐C 3 N 4 . It shows good universality for the conditions of basic room temperatures (20–50 °C), pH of 4–9 and the co‐existence of most ions. It also has good photodegradation effect on other dye pollutants, such as carmine, malachite green (MG), congo red (CR), and sunset yellow (SY). This highly efficient photodegradation of MO by 3‐OH‐Ph‐C≡C‐Cu is demonstrated to its strong hydrophilicity with the water contact angle of 35.1°, which results in the good contact of dye molecules on its surface. This work prepared an efficient photodegradation material and significantly improved the photodegradation capacity of dye pollutants. It is highly expected to achieve practical application in the treatment of industrial printing and dyeing wastewater.