Construction of a rhenium-perylene-based micelle incorporating metal active sites and its augmented synergistic adsorption and photodegradation of aquatic contaminants

The sluggish transfer of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and the high rate of carrier recombination are primary factors contributing to the suboptimal catalytic efficiency observed in organic-based photocatalysts. In this work, on the purpose of improving the photocatalytic ability of pure perylene-based micelle, rhenium bipyridine complex was introduced and the rhenium-perylene-based micelle was constructed consequently. The obtained micelle, which can achieve thorough degradation of the pollutants in the whole system within 30 min, exhibits efficient synergistic adsorption and catalysis for bisphenol A (BPA) degradation. The introduction of the metal complex exposes more active sites in the micelle. Besides, under the dual effects of photoinduced electron transfer (PIET) and metal–ligand charge transfer (MLCT), the transfer efficiency and lifetime of carriers are respectively enhanced and prolonged, which enormously increases the photocatalytic capacity of the micelle. This work will provide an insight into boosting photocatalytic properties of organic micelle materials via introducing metal active sites.