Novel semiconductor photocatalysts have been the research focus and received much attention in recent years. The key issues for novel semiconductor photocatalysts are to effectively harvest solar energy and enhance the separation efficiency of the electron-hole pairs. In this work, novel Nb3O7F/CNTs hybrid nanocomposites with enhanced photocatalytic activity have been successfully synthesized b...

Composite heteronanostructures hold promise for high photocatalytic efficiency for water splitting and the degradation of organic pollutants. However, their photocatalytic activity under broadband excitation has been challenging, until now.

CdS-sensitized Pt/TiO(2) nanosheets with exposed (001) facets were prepared by hydrothermal treatment of a Ti(OC(4)H(9))(4)-HF-H(2)O mixed solution followed by photochemical reduction deposition of Pt nanoparticles (NPs) on TiO(2) nanosheets (TiO(2) NSs) and chemical bath deposition of CdS NPs on Pt/TiO(2) NSs, successively. The UV and visible-light driven photocatalytic activity of the as-prep...

Photocatalytic membrane was successfully prepared using an efficiently high surface area TiO2 catalyst, dispersed into polyacrylonitrile matrix. The catalyst was directly synthesized using titanium triisopropanolamine as a precursor. The membranes were characterized using FT-IR, TGA, SEM and their photocatalytic performance tested, viz. stability, permeate flux and photocatalytic degradation of...

For TiO2 photocatalysts, recombination of photoexcited electrons and holes would occur in crystalline defects such as oxygen vacancies, Ti ions, and surface states. Therefore, it is believed that the density of crystalline defects should be decreased to improve the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 particles. Contrary to this common knowledge, the introduction of crystalline defects by hydrogen r...

An investigation of the optical and excitonic properties of photocatalytic compounds based on both experimental and theoretical approaches is proposed. More specifically, this paper reports, for the first time, the local-field, optical anisotropy, and excitonic effects in BiVO4, an active photocatalytic material in the visible range. The analyses are based on electron energy-loss spectroscopy m...

After the dyeing process, part of the dyes used to color textile materials are not fixed into the substrate and are discharged into wastewater as residual dyes. In this study, a heterogeneous photocatalytic process combined with microfiltration has been investigated for the removal of C.I. Disperse Red 73 from synthetic textile effluents. The titanium dioxide (TiO2) Aeroxide P25 was selected as...

Well-crystallized BiOCl nanoplates with exposed {001} facets were synthesized by a facile electrochemical anodic oxidation method. The thickness of the nanoplates decreases with increasing citric acid content in the electrolyte. The optical absorption edge of the BiOCl nanoplates shifts to a longer wavelength with citric acid. The BiOCl nanoplates obtained with citric acid show a high photocata...

Cashmere with UV-induced photocatalytic properties is developed for the first time by applying nanocrystalline anatase TiO₂ colloid that is free of inorganic acids and organic solvents via a facile low-temperature one-step sol-gel process. The coated cashmere exhibits remarkable UV-induced photodegradation of methyl orange. Furthermore, the photocatalytic nano-coating on cashmere exhibits signi...

Silver doped TiO2 nanoparticles have been prepared by liquid impregnation (LI) and photodeposition (PD) methods and characterized by surface analytical methods such as scanning electron micrographs (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The photocatalytic activity of silver doped TiO2 was tested by photocatalytic degradation of C.I. Acid Red 88 (AR88) as a model compound from monoazo textile dyes. ...