Simple and scalable fabrication of hairy ZnO@ZnS core@shell Cu cables for continuous sunlight-driven photocatalytic water remediation

Over the last few decades, the application of photocatalysis for mineralizing persistent organic pollutants and other new emerging contaminants has gained increasing research and industry attention. However, the integration of catalyst fabrication and reactor design has not yet been realized for photocatalytic water decontamination applications. Herein, we present, for the first time, a facile, scalable, and eco-friendly strategy for the direct synthesis and integration of hairy ZnO@ZnS core@shell Cu cables in a continuous flow tubular-type reactor. The hairy ZnO@ZnS core@shell Cu cables exhibited (i) excellent photocatalytic performance (photocatalytic degradation > 99%, mineralization > 99%) for continuous water decontamination of both single(methylene blue) and multi-pollutants (methylene blue, p-nitrophenol, and rhodamine B) under artificial UV-filtered sunlight irradiation; (ii) a large surface area (90.1 m(2) g(-1)) and a large number of active sites owing to the hairy architecture; (iii) enhanced light absorption in the visible region due to the ZnO@ZnS core@shell heterostructure, which promotes the separation of photogenerated carriers; (iv) improved light trapping capability due to the hairy architecture; (v) high photostability with minimal photocorrosion (< 2% after 180 h of continuous irradiation); and (vi) excellent robustness. The recyclability and potential for direct re-fabrication of a fresh photocatalyst were also successfully confirmed. Thus, hairy ZnO@ZnS core@shell Cu cables were demonstrated to be a reliable and promising immobilized photocatalysts for the efficient mineralization of persistent organic pollutants and for the total/partial oxidation of other emerging pollutants in a continuous flow tubular-type reactor.