Construction of porphyrin-integrated PDI vesicles for synergistic adsorption and enhanced photocatalysis toward 2,4,6-trichlorophenol degradation

Pure organic photocatalytic materials often suffer from inefficient mass transfer and rapid charge recombination, limiting their practical applications in water purification. Herein, we construct donor–acceptor (D–A) composite vesicles by integrating electron-rich tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP) into perylene diimide (PDI)-based vesicular assemblies. The resulting TPP@PDI vesicles exhibit remarkable bifunctionality: (1) rapid adsorption of 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (TCP) within 1 min via hydrophobic, π–π, and electrostatic interactions, achieving 65% adsorption; (2) significantly enhanced photocatalytic degradation performance, completely removing TCP within 80 min under visible light. The incorporation of TPP not only broadens the visible-light absorption but also establishes a type-II energy alignment that facilitates directional electron transfer from TPP to PDI, thereby suppressing charge recombination and boosting the generation of reactive oxygen species (·O₂ − , 1 O₂, h + ). Consequently, the optimized composite vesicles (P: T  = 8:2) exhibit a degradation rate constant 4.6 times higher than that of pure PDI vesicles and 29.3 times higher than that of pure TPP. This work demonstrates a rational design of organic D–A vesicular systems for synergistic adsorption–photocatalysis, offering a promising strategy for the efficient removal of persistent aqueous pollutants.