Surface‐Engineered Hollow Polymer Spheres for Efficient Enrichment and Photodegradation of Aqueous Organic Wastes

Abstract

To conquer the low light utilization efficiency of traditional photocatalysts-polymer composites with core-shell structure, and boost the adsorption efficiency of functional polymer in the composites. Photocatalysts surface-engineered hollow polymer spheres are successfully synthesized by a Pickering emulsion polymerization method for removal of organic pollutants from water. Batch experiments (phenol as a model molecular, BiOI 0.5 Cl 0.5 as a model photocatalysts) showed that the removal efficiency of photocatalysts surface-engineered hollow polymer spheres was higher than that of solid polymer spheres. The significant increase in removal efficiency suggests that photocatalysts surface-engineered hollow polymer spheres might serve as powerful agents in treating organics-polluted water.