Br-Doped CuO NPs@Wood for Photocatalytic Degrading Organic Dyes and VOCs

Developing sustainable and high-performance photocatalysts for environmental remediation remains a significant challenge. Herein, bromine-doped CuO nanoparticles (Br-CuO NPs) were in situ anchored onto hardwood and softwood substrates via a facile hydrothermal approach, yielding robust wood-semiconductor hybrid architectures. The optimized Br-CuO NPs@poplar exhibited outstanding photocatalytic activity, achieving 99.46% degradation of methylene blue (MB) within 10 h, which is 1.23 times higher than that of undoped CuO, and retained over 95% efficiency after 100 consecutive cycles. Furthermore, the photocatalyst efficiently degraded gaseous pollutants, achieving 97.26%, 94.63%, and 87.79% removal of acetone, formaldehyde, and ammonia, respectively, under visible light irradiation. Comprehensive structural and electronic analyses (SEM, EIS, PL) revealed that Br doping introduced oxygen vacancies and shallow donor levels, thereby narrowing the bandgap and promoting charge carrier separation. This in situ doping-anchoring strategy provides a scalable and eco-friendly route to fabricate durable wood-based photocatalysts with superior efficiency for simultaneous air and water purification.