HYBRID POLYMERIC SYSTEMS BASED ON ORGANIC AND INORGANIC SEMICONDUCTORS FOR APPLICATION IN WATER REMEDIATION

The photocatalysis acted by organic and inorganic semiconductors represents a promising environmental-friendly solution in several fields such as medicine, energetic and water purification. The water treatment, taking advantages of the use of solar-light as clean and renewable source leads to its remediation without adding further chemicals in the aqueous media. The efficiency of this technology is based on the production of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) in water, which are able to mineralize almost all organic pollutants and microorganisms, as well. In light of this, the formulation of adsorptive polymeric systems based on poly-methacrylate sponges synthetized by cryo-polymerization, can be proficiently used to adsorb contaminants as well as to support inorganic ZnO photocatalytic nanoparticles. Atomic layer deposition method is used to covalent link the nanostructured semiconductor to the polymer substrate avoiding their release in water during the purification process. Furthermore, graphene oxide is used as a filler to improve the adsorption capability versus organic pollutants. The regeneration of sponge materials can be successfully achieved after each adsorption/photocatalytic cycle allowing their reuse for several times1. Otherwise, polymers can be designed as organic photo-catalysts, combining them with a 3D graphene platform. Graphene supports the polymeric photo-catalytic material performing also a freestanding and manageable device easily to remove after the treatment. Most importantly, graphene acts also as co-catalyst during the photo degradation process, boosting the formation of ROS in water. The non-covalent assembly of such kind of hybrid material based on polyporphyrins systems, results to be an effective strategy to eliminate in permanent way organic contaminants under visible light irradiation2