Formation of organometallic microstructures via self-assembling of carboxylated zinc phthalocyanines with selective adsorption and visible light-driven photodegradation of cationic dyes

• Published in: Journal of materials science 2018, Vol.53 (1), p.492-505
• Main Authors: Pan, Lin, Jia, Kun, Huang, Yumin, Liu, Xiaobo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adsorption; Cationic dyes; Cations; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemical Routes to Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Classical Mechanics; Crystal structure; Crystallography and Scattering Methods; Dyes; Materials Science; Methylene blue; Morphology; Optical properties; Photodegradation; Pollutants; Polymer Sciences; Protonation; Selective adsorption; Self-assembly; Solid Mechanics; Zinc
• ISSN: 0022-2461; 1573-4803
• DOI: 10.1007/s10853-017-1531-6

Self-assembled organometallic micro/nano-structures showing well-defined morphology and tunable functionality are receiving increasing interests for recent years. Herein, the flower- and rod-like organometallic micro/nano-structures have been constructed via a facile protonation-induced self-assembling of carboxylated zinc phthalocyanines (ZnPc carboxylate) at room temperature. Thanks to their hierarchical microstructures and active photosensitization feature, the formulated ZnPc micro/nano-structures exhibited simultaneous selective adsorption and visible light-driven photodegradation of cationic dye molecules, leading to a quite competitive removal capacity of methylene blue approaching to 80 mg g −1 . Furthermore, the self-assembling of ZnPc micro/nano-structures was rationalized in terms of systematic characterization of their morphology evolution, crystalline structures, and optical properties. The ZnPc micro/nano-structures showing excellent adsorption capacity, photocatalytic degradation towards cationic dye molecules as well as the scalable fabrication will pave their way for future application in environmental remediation and water pollutants control.