Researchers made carbon composites from sawdust and ferrocene, then tested them as visible-light photocatalysts for removing Brilliant Blue R-250 dye and amoxicillin from laboratory water. A composite with 25 weight percent ferrocene removed more than 95% of the dye within 120 minutes. A different composite with only 0.05 weight percent ferrocene performed best against amoxicillin, removing about 75 to 80% in the same period. The materials were made by washing and carbonizing sawdust at 300, 500 or 700 C, then adding ferrocene and calcining the mixture. The process avoids chemical activation and pore engineering, but the resulting carbons had very low surface areas. The authors attribute performance to adsorption on the rough carbon surface plus photoactivity from iron-containing phases, not to a porous structure. These results come from controlled model solutions, not real wastewater. The study tracked UV-visible absorbance, so it shows degradation or color loss, not complete mineralization. Reuse tests ran for five cycles with modest loss. The work is proof of concept for a low-complexity waste-to-material route, not a ready-to-scale water treatment system.
