TiO₂/Carbon Materials Derived from Hydrothermal Carbonization of Waste Biomass: A Highly Efficient, Low‐Cost Visible‐Light‐Driven Photocatalyst

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, we present a green, low‐cost carbon material derived from waste biomass (hazelnut shell (HS) and olive residue (OR)) to fabricate a binary TiO 2 /carbon composite for improving the photocatalytic performance of TiO 2 under visible light. The synthesis, characterization, and photocatalytic applications of the TiO 2 /carbon composite were performed. Hydrothermal carbonization was used to obtain the carbon support materials. A series of TiO 2 /carbon composite materials from waste biomass based on hydrochar, fullerene, and carbon nanotubes has been prepared for comparison purposes. Photocatalytic performances of all composites were measured by comparing methylene blue (MB) removal rates. The results show that waste biomass based hydrochar/TiO 2 composites possessed superior visible‐light photocatalytic activity compared with high technology carbons/TiO 2 composites such as fullerene and carbon nanotubes. The enhanced photodegradation capacity could be ascribed to the delocalized furanic conjugated system and functional groups of HS‐TiO 2 and OR‐TiO 2 composites.