Effective oxygenated boron groups of boron-doped photoreduced graphene oxide for photocatalytic removal of volatile organic compounds

The adverse health effects from indoor air pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) has intrigued much attention. Photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) is a promising technique to degrade VOCs under ambient conditions. A metal-free photocatalyst, namely boron-doped photoreduced graphene oxide (BPRGO) was synthesized via a facile, scalable, and cost-effective UV irradiation method. The BPRGO photocatalyst managed to remove 80% of the VOCs (100 mg/m3 of methanol) within 6 h (0.283 h−1) under UV-A irradiation. Moreover, up to 91% of the VOCs were successfully mineralised into harmless CO2. The high photoactivity of BPRGO-1.0 was due to the high amount of oxygenated boron groups (OBGs) namely BC2O and BCO2 groups. The suitable amount of B dopants led to a higher hole carrier density and p-type conductivity. This had retarded the charge carrier recombination which improved the photocatalytic removal of VOCs. This work provides new insights of metal-free BPRGO photocatalyst for VOCs removal.