Invited feature articleMechanisms on the enhanced sterilization performance of fluorocarbon resin composite coatings modified by g-C3N4/Bi2MoO6 under the visible-light

- Sterilizing activity of PEVE coatings was significantly enhanced by g-C3N4/Bi2MoO6.
- G-C3N4 enhances the separation efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole pair of Bi2MoO6.
- High active superoxide radicals and holes have great inhibition effect on the activity of bacteria.

Photocatalysts, which are produced by strong oxidizing groups (OH, h+, O2−), could solve marine biofouling problems efficiently. A number of studies showed that the microbial attachment was the original of marine biological attachment, and oxidizing groups inhibit the bacterial activity. In present work, the hybrid g-C3N4/Bi2MoO6 photocatalysts were synthesized via a sonochemical method. The successful combination of g-C3N4 and Bi2MoO6 was characterized by various physicochemical techniques, such as XRD, SEM, TEM, UV-vis and EIS test. As the results showed, the sterilization performance of the PEVE composite coatings was enhanced after adding g-C3N4/Bi2MoO6 under the visible-light irradiation. When the content of g-C3N4 in Bi2MoO6 was 7%, the sterilization performance of composite coatings was prominent under visible light irradiation for 4 h. This finding was attributed to the increased separation efficiency of the photogenerated electron-hole pairs of Bi2MoO6 by g-C3N4, which contributed to the generation of superoxide radicals (O2−). Meanwhile, we also tested the stability and sterilization performance of 7% g-C3N4/Bi2MoO6/PEVE coating, the results demonstrated that the g-C3N4/Bi2MoO6/PEVE coating has good stability and cycle performance. This work has great significance in the photocatalyst technology as a coating for killing marine bacteria to address marine biofouling problems.

91