Biomass-inspired Semiconductor Photocatalysts for Solar Degradation of Organics

Nowadays, the environmental pollutions are great threats to the health of humans and the sustainable development of the world. A wide variety of harmful organic pollutants are leading to the disruption of ecosystems as well as illness in the human body. The design and synthesis of cost-effective, reusable and efficient photocatalysts for organics degradation are highly desired. Biomass-inspiring method is a novel and effective strategy to obtain efficient photocatalysts with controlled morphology, unique structure, compositional utilization, and functional specificity. In this paper, a brief introduction of biomass-inspired functional photocatalysts is given first, followed by an explanation of the oxidation process of semiconductor photocatalysts for degradation of organics. Three typical type organic pollutants--dyes, phenols and volatile organic compounds as well as their degradation process are presented. Afterwards, we highlight the synthesis and applications of some representative biomass-inspired semiconductor photocatalysts derived from nature, ranging from nanoscale, microscale, mesoscale to marcoscale, by using biomolecules, microorganism, animals and plants as templates. Examples of the fabrication of active photocatalysts through self-doping biogenic elements (e.g., I, N, P, S,C) derived from biomass templates are also provided. At last, we point out some challenges for the large-scale commercial applications of biomass-inspired photocatalysts and summarize some advantageous prototypes derived from nature for future design of promising photocatalysts or photocatalystic systems.