An effective strategy for synthesizing high-performance photocatalyst by recycling the graphite target wastes

The tide of new energy vehicles and modern semiconductor devices releases a myriad of graphite anode and graphite target wastes. Recycling graphite wastes for catalysis preparation turns out to be a win-win and efficient way to deal with rampant environmental pollution. In this work, a graphite target waste was efficiently recycled into 2D few-layer graphite as the raw materials for the subsequent synthesis of nanoscale photocatalysts. The as-developed photocatalyst demonstrates a gain of 19 % in photocatalytic efficiency and superior photostability in sunlight-driven photodegradation of organic pollutants. Furthermore, the impact of temperature and pH value on the photocatalytic degradation efficiency was systematically investigated. The work affords an effective strategy for high-efficiency waste reclamation through full utilization of the graphite target wastes. [Display omitted] •Graphite target wastes were first reported to be recycled for the synthesis of photocatalysts.•A win-win and efficient strategy to deal with the rampant environmental pollution.•2D few-layer graphite induced multiple crystal nuclei growth for producing the nanoparticles with smaller size.•The as-developed photocatalysts demonstrates the superior photocatalytic efficiency and photostability.