Is Graphene Brand New in Carbon-Based Semiconductor Photocatalysts for Organic Pollutants Degradation?

摘要

Graphene-based semiconductor photocatalysts have been extensively studied for the photocatalytic degradation of organic compounds and have proven more efficient than the bare semiconductor photocatalysts [1-5]. However, graphene, as a “rising star” material and another allotrope of carbon (activated carbon, fullerenes, and carbon nanotubes), is it really superior to other carbon materials when combined with semiconductor photo catalysts, or just because graphene is a newly discovered “weirdie” and people are blindly keen on? To get a comprehensive but still open answer to this question, the unique properties of graphene and the physical and chemical factors that matters the photodegradation activity of carbon-semiconductor photocatalysts should be addressed. In addition, the characteristics of different carbon-semiconductor system should be emphasized.