This work provides new insights in the field of applied photochemistry based on semiconductor-free nanoporous carbons and its application to sunlight energy harvesting. Using carbon materials of increasing average pore size, chemical functionalization to introduce a variety of O- and S-containing functional groups and monochromatic light, we have shown the dependence of the photochemical conversion of phenol in the confinement of the carbons nanopore space with the wavelength of the irradiation source, the dimensions of the pore voids and their surface chemistry. The photochemical conversion of phenol inside the carbons pore space was found to be very sensitive to the nature of the S-containing groups and the confinement state of the adsorbed pollutant.

COA thanks the financial support of the European Research Council through a Consolidator Grant (ERC-CoG-648161-PHOROSOL) and the Spanish MINECO (CTM2014/56770-R). AGB thanks her PhD fellowship (BES-2012-060410). TJB acknowledges the NSF support (CBET 1133112).

Peer reviewed