A Photothermal-Photocatalytic Textile With Efficient Thermal Management for Boosting Ciprofloxacin Purification

Abstract

Photocatalysis is a renewable and eco-friendly process with great potential for the purification of ciprofloxacin (CIP) in water. However, conventional methods tend to focus on the design of photocatalysts, which pays less attention to the photothermal performance, resulting in a limited purification rate. Here, we propose a photothermal-photocatalytic textile based on carbon fiber felts decorated with homogeneous titanium dioxide films to efficiently purify CIP in water. The carbon fiber felts decorated with titanium dioxide films show high solar absorption (∼93 %) for solar water evaporation and simultaneous photocatalytic degradation for CIP purification. Notably, the enhancement of local wettability by titanium dioxide films on carbon fiber felts promotes photothermal efficiency. The carbon fiber felts decorated with titanium dioxide films demonstrate an evaporation rate of 1.19 kg m⁻² h⁻¹, achieving an efficiency of 72.5 % under 1 sun. The experimental results reveal that the local thermal effect can effectively enhance catalytic degradation. CIP is almost completely degraded under sunlight, whereas the degradation efficiency under UV light is 55.8%. Specifically, we observe that CIP can be effectively degraded in purified water and condensed water. Moreover, the carbon fiber felts decorated with titanium dioxide films exhibit multidirectional degradation performance and stable physical and chemical properties, maintaining stable photothermal and photocatalytic performance even after prolonged sunlight exposure and repeated use. This work provides a paradigm for harnessing the abundant sunlight for antibiotic degradation.