TY - JOUR
T1 - Hierarchical optofluidic microreactor for water purification using an array of TiO2 nanostructures
AU - Kim, Hyejeong
AU - Kwon, Hyunah
AU - Song, Ryungeun
AU - Shin, Seonghun
AU - Ham, So Young
AU - Park, Hee Deung
AU - Lee, Jinkee
AU - Fischer, Peer
AU - Bodenschatz, Eberhard
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2021R1F1A1062297, 2022M3C1A3081178) and by a Korea University Grant (K2106961).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - Clean water for human consumption is, in many places, a scarce resource, and efficient schemes to purify water are in great demand. Here, we describe a method to dramatically increase the efficiency of a photocatalytic water purification microreactor. Our hierarchical optofluidic microreactor combines the advantages of a nanostructured photocatalyst with light harvesting by base substrates, together with a herringbone micromixer for the enhanced transport of reactants. The herringbone micromixer further improves the reaction efficiency of the nanostructured photocatalyst by generating counter-rotating vortices along the flow direction. In addition, the use of metal-based substrates underneath the nanostructured catalyst increases the purification capacity by improving the light-harvesting efficiency. The photocatalyst is grown from TiO2 as a nanohelix film, which exhibits a large surface-to-volume ratio and a reactive microstructure. We show that the hierarchical structuring with micro- to nanoscale features results in a device with markedly increased photocatalytic activity as compared with a solid unstructured catalyst surface. This is evidenced by the successful degradation of persistent aqueous contaminants, sulfamethoxazole, and polystyrene microplastics. The design can potentially be implemented with solar photocatalysts in flow-through water purification systems.
AB - Clean water for human consumption is, in many places, a scarce resource, and efficient schemes to purify water are in great demand. Here, we describe a method to dramatically increase the efficiency of a photocatalytic water purification microreactor. Our hierarchical optofluidic microreactor combines the advantages of a nanostructured photocatalyst with light harvesting by base substrates, together with a herringbone micromixer for the enhanced transport of reactants. The herringbone micromixer further improves the reaction efficiency of the nanostructured photocatalyst by generating counter-rotating vortices along the flow direction. In addition, the use of metal-based substrates underneath the nanostructured catalyst increases the purification capacity by improving the light-harvesting efficiency. The photocatalyst is grown from TiO2 as a nanohelix film, which exhibits a large surface-to-volume ratio and a reactive microstructure. We show that the hierarchical structuring with micro- to nanoscale features results in a device with markedly increased photocatalytic activity as compared with a solid unstructured catalyst surface. This is evidenced by the successful degradation of persistent aqueous contaminants, sulfamethoxazole, and polystyrene microplastics. The design can potentially be implemented with solar photocatalysts in flow-through water purification systems.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85141862145&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41545-022-00204-y
DO - 10.1038/s41545-022-00204-y
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85141862145
SN - 2059-7037
VL - 5
JO - npj Clean Water
JF - npj Clean Water
IS - 1
M1 - 62
ER -