A Ternary Pt/Au/TiO2-Decorated Plasmonic Wood Carbon for High-Efficiency Interfacial Solar Steam Generation and Photodegradation of Tetracycline

A ternary Pt/Au/TiO2 nanoparticle (NP) decorated plasmonic wood carbon has been successfully fabricated by a simple two-step calcination method. The as-prepared Pt/Au/TiO2 NP-decorated wood carbon showed an interfacial solar steam generation efficiency up to 90.4%. Furthermore, the floating system exhibits an excellent photodegradation of tetracycline (TC; 40 mg L-1). Up to 94% degradation was achieved after 80 min of continuous light irradiation (lambda > 420 nm) with the assistance of solar steam process. The photocatalysis is promoted by the introduction of Pt/Au nanocomponents, which suppress the recombination of electron-hole pairs generated on TiO2 and facilitate electron transfer. High-performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry was employed to identify the reaction products of the photocatalytic system and a mechanistic insight was also provided. The as-prepared three-dimensional plasmonic wood carbon has a high photocatalytic performance. Such wood carbon-based system is recyclable and scalable for practical and versatile solar-driven clean water generation.