TEMPO-mediated oxidized winter melon-based carbonaceous aerogel as an ultralight 3D support for enhanced photodegradation of organic pollutants

Natural biomass based carbonaceous aerogels are becoming promising lightweight, biodegradable matrices to supersede traditional support materials in realizing future sustainable photochemistry and environmental protection. Herein, flower-like BiOBr loaded onto an ultralight TEMPO-mediated oxidized carbonaceous aerogel (BOB@OWMCA) support was successfully prepared using the edible winter melon as source material via a simple solvothermal method. The three-dimensional sponge-like OWMCA with surface functionalization displayed an ultralow density (17.7 mg cm−3) and large special surface area (30.6 m2 g−1). The BiOBr was homogeneously anchored on the surface of the hierarchical porous OWMCA and the material exhibited synergetic properties of the BiOBr photocatalyst and OWMCA support to strengthen its photodegradation capacity. The results indicated that the as-prepared BOB@OWMCA composite demonstrated an outstanding adsorption and photodegradation capacity for organic pollutants (rhodamine B) under visible light irradiation. Of importance here, the BOB@OWMCA composite showed a prominent advantage for easy collection and separation from the aqueous system, making it a promising candidate as a robust visible light responsive photocatalyst for a range of applications.