A novel, miniaturized, high-efficiency photocatalytic cell, able to work in dynamic conditions, has been designed and validated in this study. Microfluidic channels were molded out of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) by means of standard soft lithography techniques, so as to work as photocatalytic cells, where the coupling of anatase titanium dioxide thin films and platinum electrodes, allows an ele...

In this research, ZnO nanowires doped with Mn2+ and Co2+ ions were synthesized through a facile and inexpensive hydrothermal approach, in which Mn2+ and Co2+ ions successfully substituted Zn2+ in the ZnO crystal lattice without changing the morphology and crystalline structure of ZnO. The atomic percentages of Mn and Co were 6.29% and 1.68%, respectively, in the doped ZnO nanowires. The photoca...

The effectiveness of photocatalytic processes is dictated largely by plasmonic materials with the capability to enhance light absorption as well as the energy conversion efficiency. Herein, we demonstrate how to improve the plasmonic photocatalytic properties of TiO2/Al nano-void arrays by overlapping the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) modes with the TiO2 band gap. The plasmonic TiO...

Reducing the recombination probability of photogenerated electrons and holes is pivotal in enhancing the photocatalytic ability of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4). Speeding the departure of photogenerated electrons is the most commonly used method of achieving this. To the best of our knowledge, there is no report on suppressing the recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs by immob...

TiO₂ (anatase phase) has excellent photocatalytic performance and different methods have been reported to overcome its main limitation of high band gap energy. In this work, TiO₂-magnetically-separable nanocomposites (MAGSNC) photocatalysts with different TiO₂ loading were synthesized using a simple one-pot mechanochemical method. Photocatalysts were characterized by a number of techniques and ...

We investigate the effect of the thickness of the silicon nitride (SiN x ) diffusion barrier on the structural and photocatalytic efficiency of TiO2 films obtained with different processes. We show that the structural and photocatalytic efficiency of TiO2 films produced using soft chemistry (sol-gel) and physical methods (reactive sputtering) are affected differentially by the intercalating SiN...

In this paper, an efficient method to produce a ZnO/BiOI nano-heterojunction is developed by a facile solution method followed by calcination. By tuning the ratio of Zn/Bi, the morphology varies from nanoplates, flowers to nanoparticles. The heterojunction formed between ZnO and BiOI decreases the recombination rate of photogenerated carriers and enhances the photocatalytic activity of ZnO/BiOI...

Photocatalytic oxidation of sodium salt of 2,6-dichloroindophenol (DCIP) in titanium dioxide aqueous suspension has been studied. DCIP is photocatalytically oxidized on the active Ti02 surface by the medium pres­ sure Hg lamp with pyrex sleeve radiation (A>280nm). The apparent integral quantum yield of the DCIP decomposition was determined. Photocatalytic decomposition of DCIP in aqueous suspen...

Sillenite Bi12MO20 (M = Ti, Ge, Si) nanofibers have been fabricated through a facile electrospinning route for photocatalytic applications. Uniform Bi12MO20 (M = Ti, Ge, Si) nanofibers with diameters of 100-200 nm and lengths of up to several millimeters can be readily obtained by thermally treating the electrospun precursors. The photocatalytic activities of these nanofibers for degradation of...

The characterization of mixed oxides of TiO2/SiO2 and TiO2/Al2O3 prepared by sol-gel methods is described. Application of the TiO2/Al2O3 material for the photocatalytic decomposition of salicylic acid gave improved activity relative to TiO2-only materials. The photocatalytic activity of TiO2/SiO2, TiO2/Al2O3, and TiO2 toward the photocatalytic decomposition of phenol demonstrated the enhancemen...