Picric Acid Violet Light Assisted Photodegradation Mediated by Germanene-Based Materials

Abstract

Germanene belongs to a family of 2D materials structurally similar to graphene. Germanene-based materials prepared from Zintl phase CaGe2 were modified during their synthesis to yield materials with various covalently bonded groups. Germanane and its derivates exhibit strong luminescence properties which can be altered via surface modification and bring even more interesting possible applications. In this work, germananes terminated by hydrogen and methyl groups (Ge-H and Ge-Me) were used for photodegradation of picric acid solution in the presence of H2O2 and violet light irradiation. Here, we show successful decomposition of picric acid solution using both Gebased materials in a significantly shorter time compared to blank reaction.