Phototactic Photocatalysis Enabled by Functionalizing Active Microorganisms with Photocatalyst

Abstract

AbstractPositive phototropism enables plants to take advantage of sunlight more efficiently. However, positive phototropism of plant‐like photocatalyst has not been reported yet, which cause people's limited understanding on it. Therefore, developing new photocatalysts that can move toward the light source and thus speed up the photocatalytic process, is a great challenge. Herein, a biologically active photocatalyst (graphitic carbon nitride combined with algae microorganisms, g‐C3N4/alga) is reported first that can behave like green plants and move toward light source, leading to a great enhancement in photocatalysis. The photocatalytic degradation efficiency of the phototactic g‐C3N4/alga is improved up to 570% than that of pure g‐C3N4. The phototactic g‐C3N4/alga photocatalyst can effectively utilize the synergy of phototaxis of microalgae and photocatalytic activity of g‐C3N4 to promote the pollutant decomposition using sunlight. Imparting photocatalyst with positive phototropism will open a new door in photocatalysis field for clean energy production, pollutant treatment, and biomass conversion.