In the present study the authors investigated a set of three new zinc(II) phthalocyanines (zinc(II) tetranitrophthalocyanine (ZnTNPc), zinc(II) tetra(phenyloxy)phthalocyanine (ZnTPhOPc) and the tetraiodide salt of zinc(II)tetra(N,N,N-trimethylaminoethyloxy) phthalocyaninate (ZnTTMAEOPcI)) immobilized into Al-MCM-41 prepared via ship-in-a-bottle methodology. The samples were fully characterized ...

Photocatalytic water splitting using sunlight is a promising technology capable of providing high energy yield without pollutant byproducts. Herein, we review various aspects of this technology including chemical reactions, physiochemical conditions and photocatalyst types such as metal oxides, sulfides, nitrides, nanocomposites, and doped materials followed by recent advances in computational ...

The increasing concern about environmental pollution and fossil fuel energies have urged researchers to seek renewable energy sources and methods for pollutant decomposition. Photocatalysis seems to be one of the most promising approaches, which uses natural sunlight to produce hydrogen from water and removes organic pollutants from the environment. Among the various photocatalysts, graphitic c...

The synthesis and photocatalytic properties of a heteropolyoxoniobate, K(10)[Nb(2)O(2)(H(2)O)(2)][SiNb(12)O(40)]·12H(2)O (1), are reported, revealing an important role of Zr(4+) additives in the crystallization. Compound 1 exhibits overall photocatalytic water splitting activity, and its photocatalytic activity is significantly higher than that of Na(10)[Nb(2)O(2)][SiNb(12)O(40)]·xH(2)O (2). Fl...

Copper nanoparticles/fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) nanocomposites were successfully prepared by a simple hydrothermal method. The synthesized nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-visible diffuse-reflectance spectrum (UV-VIS DRS), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Raman spectra, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The obta...

The use of standalone titanium dioxide (TiO2) photocatalytic treatment and one that is combined with coagulation process to treat natural organic matter (NOM) from two different water sources (synthetic water containing 10 ppm of humic acid and water samples sourced from Myponga reservoir) is investigated herein. In the combined process, the water samples were treated with a novel composite coa...

In this paper, the photocatalytic (UV-A/TiO2) degradation of two steroid hormones: norethisterone and danazol in aqueous medium has been studied using immobilized titanium dioxide as photocatalyst. The photolytic degradation (degradation without photocatalyst) of the two hormones was also investigated. UV-A irradiation was provided by black light lamp 18 W. The photocatalytic and photolytic deg...

Photocatalytic oxidation of benzyl alcohols in aqueous suspensions of rhodium ion-modified titanium(iv) oxide (Rh(3+)/TiO2) in the presence of O2 under irradiation of visible light was examined. In the photocatalytic oxidation of benzyl alcohol, benzaldehyde was obtained in a high yield (97%) with >99% conversion of benzyl alcohol. Rh(3+)/TiO2 photocatalysts having various physical properties w...

Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) hierarchical microstructures were synthesized by using a facile and nontoxic hydrothermal route, which were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Raman spectra, and UV-Vis absorption spectra. The results and analysis show that surfactants used in the hydrothermal process have significant effect on the phase structures, morphologies...

Finding active sites for photocatalytic reduction and oxidation allows the mechanistic understanding of a given reaction, ensuring the rational design and fabrication of an efficient photocatalyst. Herein, using well-shaped Cu2WS4 decahedra as model photocatalysts, we demonstrated that photoinduced oxidative etching could be considered as an indication of the photooxidation reaction sites of ch...