Robust TiO2/CuS@TiO2 composites loaded on Ti mesh with outstanding stability and photothermal effects for the enhanced photo-degradation of organic pollutions in a flowing device

A scalable strategy with commercial feasibility was developed to in situ generate TiO2 nanowires/amorphous [email protected]2 nanolayer (TiO2/[email protected]2) composites on the surface of titanium mesh through a sequent hydrothermal method, successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR), and atomic layer deposition (ALD) techniques. The TiO2/[email protected]2 composites could respectively harness the incident light with different spectra at the photothermal center (CuS, visible and near-infrared light) and photocatalytic center (TiO2, UV and visible light), which leads to the effective utilization of the solar energy. Benefiting from the CuS photothermal-induced local heating effect of CuS, the adjacent micro-zone temperature could be elevated and the activation energy barrier could be reduced by 10.5 kJ mol−1, which promotes the activation of surface lattice oxygen and dissolved oxygen in the photocatalytic process. Meanwhile, the ALD generated TiO2 nanolayer could both serve as reactive centers but also protecting armor for the CuS, which prohibited the peeling and oxidation of the thermal centers, leading to a high stability of the photocatalyst, which exhibits no obvious fading after 20-cycle reuse. A flow reactor was conceived and made by 3D print and the Ti-mesh based photocatalyst was integrated, which demonstrates high photocatlytic performances, manifesting its great potential for large-scale water treatment.