Well-crystallized MSb(2)O(6) (M = Ca, Sr and Ba) powders synthesized by solid state reactions exhibit an interesting photocatalytic activity order of Ba > Sr > Ca for organic pollutant (methylene blue and phenol) degradation and hydrogen production from water under UV light irradiation. A simple model, crystal packing factor (PF), was introduced to account for the activity difference. Nine seri...

Bi-phasic photocatalyic particles have been prepared in the form of Janus-like structures (bi-phasic materials with two distinct properties on opposing sides of the particle) using a new synthetic procedure consisting of the sequential layer depositions of semiconductor oxide materials onto soluble substrates. A number of different systems have to date been investigated with an aim of photocata...

Novel carbon quantum dot (CQD) modified Bi2MoO6 photocatalysts were prepared via a facile hydrothermal process. The CQD modified Bi2MoO6 materials were characterized by multiple techniques. The CQDs with the average size of about 7 nm were distributed on the surface of Bi2MoO6 nanosheets. The photocatalytic activity of as-prepared CQD modified Bi2MoO6 materials was investigated sufficiently by ...

Iron-doped titanium dioxide nanoarchitectures with ordered mesopore periodicity and enhanced photocatalytic activity have been developed as photofunctional materials for environmental purification.

We report a synthetic approach to form cubic Cu2O/Pd composite structures and demonstrate their use as photocatalytic materials for tandem catalysis. Pd nanoparticles were deposited onto Cu2O cubes, and their tandem catalytic reactivity was studied via the reductive dehalogenation of polychlorinated biphenyls. The Pd content of the materials was gradually increased to examine its influence on p...

In this article, a novel BiVO4@fibers composite photocatalyst was prepared by a process that monoclinic scheelite BiVO4 nano/micro particles were in situ formated onto fiber materials. The structure, morphology and photophysical properties of the composite materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, re...

Hydrogen is the ideal fuel for the future because it is clean, energy efficient, and abundant in nature. While various technologies can be used to generate hydrogen, only some of them can be considered environmentally friendly. Recently, solar hydrogen generated via photocatalytic water splitting has attracted tremendous attention and has been extensively studied because of its great potential ...

Crystal facet engineering of semiconductors is of growing interest and an important strategy for fine-tuning solar-driven photocatalytic activity. However, the primary factor in the exposed active facets that determines the photocatalytic property is still elusive. Herein, we have experimentally achieved high solar photocatalytic activity in ultrathin BiOCl nanosheets with almost fully exposed ...

Highly exposed facets TiO2 attracts enormous attention due to its excellent separation effect of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and induced high performance of photocatalytic activity. Herein, a novel hydrothermal etching reaction was used to synthesize graphene-wrapped TiO2 hollow core-shell structures. Different with the reported co-exposed facets TiO2 single crystal nanoparticles, the pr...