Photocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide (CO(2)) to hydrocarbons such as methanol makes possible simultaneous solar energy harvesting and CO(2) reduction, two birds with one stone for the energy and environmental issues. This work describes a high photocatalytic conversion of CO(2) to methanol using graphene oxides (GOs) as a promising photocatalyst. The modified Hummer's method has been app...

The paper reports the preparation and photocatalytic activity of ZnO doped SnO2 nanoparticles. These nanoparticles were synthesized by hydrothermal method. The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Their grain sizes are about 50-100 nm. The characterization results revealed that the synthesized nanoparticles possess just cr...

Recently, a growing amount of effort has been devoted to solving the widespread problem of pollution. Photocatalysts have attracted increasing attention for their widespread environmental applications. Here, a classic and simple electrospun technique is used to directly fabricate a porous a tungsten oxide nanoframework with graphene film as a photocatalyst for degradation of pollutants. The as-...

In this work, oxygen vacancies were introduced onto the surface of BiFeO₃ nanoparticles by NaBH₄ reduction method to yield oxygen-deficient BiFeO3-x samples. Comprehensive analysis on the basis of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) observation and X-ray photoelectron spectrum (XPS) confirms the existence of surface oxygen vacancies on the BiFeO3-x nanoparticles. The photoc...

Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) have been widely explored as light harvesting antenna in photocatalysts due to their ability to absorb broad solar spectrum, but are typically limited by poor photoelectrochemical stability. Here we report the synthesis of reduced graphene oxide-SiNW (rGO-SiNW) heterostructures to achieve greatly improved photocatalytic activity and stability. The SiNWs were synthesize...

A simple microwave-assisted (MWI) wet chemical route to synthesize pure anatase phase titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) is reported here using titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) as starting material. The as-prepared TiO2 NPs were characterized by electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, UV/visible absorption spectroscopy, and infrared and Raman spectroscopic techniques. Further modificatio...

0021-9517/$ see front matter Published by Elsevier doi:10.1016/j.jcat.2010.11.001 ⇑ Corresponding author at: Department of Electric Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA. Fax: E-mail address: [email protected] (S.B. Cronin). By integrating strongly plasmonic Au nanoparticles with strongly catalytic TiO2, we observe enhanced photocatalytic decomposition of methyl orange under visible ill...

The chemical bonding of particulate photocatalysts to supporting material surfaces is of great importance in engineering more efficient and practical photocatalytic structures. However, the influence of such chemical bonding on the optical and surface properties of the photocatalyst and thus its photocatalytic activity/reaction selectivity behavior has not been systematically studied. In this i...

Herein, MoS2/TiO2 nanobelts heterojunction have been successfully synthesized by in situ growth method for photocatalytic reduction of Cr(VI). TiO2 nanobelts (NBs) with rough surface were prepared firstly by acidic treatment process, which is beneficial for deposition and growth of MoS2 to form heterojunctions. As a result of special energy level offset and nanostructure, MoS2/TiO2 NBs composit...

I-doped titanium dioxide nanospheres (I-TNSs) were synthesized via a two-step hydrothermal synthesis route, their potential for the efficient utilization of visible light was evaluated. The prepared anatase-phase I-TNSs had a bimodal porous size distribution with a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area of 76 m2/g, a crystallite size of approximately 14 nm calculated from X-ray diffraction data, a...