A novel approach to strengthen naturally pored wood for highly efficient photodegradation

Carbonaceous materials with unique microstructure obtained by pyrolyzing renewable and environment-friendly nature plants have promising applications in areas such as battery and catalyst support. However, unexpected cracks accompanied by low oxidation resistance retard further development. In this study, a thin SiC coating for strengthening purpose was in-situ deposited on biomorphic porous carbon materials fabricated by pyrolyzing wood while maintaining low density. Continuously ordered microchannel structures from carbonized nature wood with a diameter of ca. 20 μm was completely replicated after depositing SiC coating, resulting in the good anisotropy in mechanical and thermal properties. The thin SiC coating was found to greatly increase compressive strength from 26.4 to 47.4 MPa and thermal conductivity from 0.49 to 14.94 W/m K in the axial direction with improved oxidation resistance of weight loss from 78.5% to 1.51%. In the radial direction, however, the increase of the two properties was lower due to the longitudinal microchannel structure. Feasibility of the biomorphic carbon serving as catalyst support with highly developed continuous channels was evaluated by loading typical molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂). Result shows a significant improvement in both adsorption and photodegradation efficiency against the pure MoS₂, which is because of the enlarged specific surface area of the catalyst.