Enhanced catalytic activity without the use of an external light source using microwave-synthesized CuO nanopetals

• Govinda Lakhotiya,
• Sonal Bajaj,
• Arpan Kumar Nayak,
• Debabrata Pradhan,
• Pradip Tekade and
• Abhimanyu Rana

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1167–1173, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.118

• with the development of cost effective and ecologically friendly methods [2]. Metal oxides have attracted significant attention as a photocatalyst for the degradation of these pollutants [3][4][5][6]. Copper oxide (CuO) is one of the most efficient materials for the oxidation of the air pollutant

• chemical technique. These nanostructures exhibited an increased band gap with larger surface area. The CuO nanopetals, with a specific surface area ≈40 m2·g−1, have proven to be an efficient catalyst for the degradation of water pollutant, industrial dyes, even in the absence of photon irradiation (UV

High photocatalytic activity of Fe₂O₃/TiO₂ nanocomposites prepared by photodeposition for degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid

• Shu Chin Lee,
• Hendrik O. Lintang and
• Leny Yuliati

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 915–926, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.93

• ) under irradiation of UV light. 2,4-D is a herbicide widely utilized in the agricultural industry; it can be found in water sources due to its common use in controlling broadleaf weeds [23]. Excessive exposure of 2,4-D leads to adverse impacts on the ecosystem, and thus, the toxic organic pollutant must

• for its capability to decompose the organic pollutant under a mild environment. In the present work, it was shown that the different preparation methods resulted in distinctly different properties and photocatalytic activity. Better properties and the improved activity of Fe2O3/TiO2 nanocomposites

• /pollutant. The photostability of the Fe2O3(0.5)/TiO2 (PD) nanocomposite was investigated by evaluating the photocatalytic activity for removal of 2,4-D over three cycles. After the first run of reaction under 1 h UV irradiation, the photocatalyst was collected from the 2,4-D solution and was washed with

Modeling adsorption of brominated, chlorinated and mixed bromo/chloro-dibenzo-p-dioxins on C₆₀ fullerene using Nano-QSPR

• Piotr Urbaszek,
• Agnieszka Gajewicz,
• Celina Sikorska,
• Maciej Haranczyk and
• Tomasz Puzyn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 752–761, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.78

• unprecedented properties of such organic nanomaterials (in particular their large surface area) gained extensive attention for their potential use as organic pollutant sorbents. Sorption interactions can be very hazardous and useful at the same time. This work investigates the influence of halogenation by

• mechanisms of dioxin congeners on the C60 surface, and ii) applicability of the Nano-QSPR approach for predictions of organic pollutant congeneric groups. As far as we know, the proposed study is the first attempt to use the Nano-QSPR approach for predictions of the interaction between the congeneric family

Synthesis of graphene–transition metal oxide hybrid nanoparticles and their application in various fields

• Arpita Jana,
• Elke Scheer and
• Sebastian Polarz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 688–714, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.74

• –TiO2 make use of its photocatalytic activity, there are also some applications of shape-controlled TiO2–graphene hybrids used in pollutant abatement [100], high-performance anodes for microbial fuel cells [101], and self-cleaning applications [102]. Vanadium oxide (VO, V2O3, VO2, V2O5)–graphene hybrids

Gas sensing properties of MWCNT layers electrochemically decorated with Au and Pd nanoparticles

• Elena Dilonardo,
• Michele Penza,
• Marco Alvisi,
• Riccardo Rossi,
• Gennaro Cassano,
• Cinzia Di Franco,
• Francesco Palmisano,
• Luisa Torsi and
• Nicola Cioffi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 592–603, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.64

• of emissions of toxic, pollutant gases (e.g., NO2, H2S, NH3, C4H10) and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere [1]. The effect of high concentration levels of these gaseous pollutants causes both environmental problems and health consequences for humans (e.g., respiratory and cardiovascular illness

• ). Hence, control and monitoring of gas emissions is still a critical need of modern societies. So far several restrictions have been imposed to limit and to control the emissions of pollutant gases into the atmosphere, although their levels in the atmosphere are still kept below the environmental quality

• used in the MWCNT functionalization (Au or Pd) with a defined size and surface concentration. The deposition of noble metal NPs (Au and Pd) on the surface of MWCNT networks considerably improved the gas sensitivity with respect to the unmodified system towards various pollutant gases (NO2, H2S, NH3

Graphene functionalised by laser-ablated V₂O₅ for a highly sensitive NH₃ sensor

• Margus Kodu,
• Artjom Berholts,
• Tauno Kahro,
• Mati Kook,
• Peeter Ritslaid,
• Helina Seemen,
• Tea Avarmaa,
• Harry Alles and
• Raivo Jaaniso

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 571–578, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.61

• oxidation state in vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) – a good oxygen transfer catalyst that is (thermally) stable in air and vacuum [7][8][9][10]. Therefore, we considered vanadium oxide as a promising material for functionalising a graphene sensor in order to increase its selectivity towards reducing pollutant

• , respectively, which is indeed observed. The response to another common reducing gas, the air pollutant carbon monoxide (CO) was also tested. The inset in Figure 4 demonstrates the response of a V2O5 functionalised sensor to 100 ppm CO. Although the sensor is sensitive to CO and a ≈7% decrease in conductivity

• drastically increase both the adsorption of pollutant molecules and the influence of gas adsorption on the electronic properties of graphene [6][30]. For instance, adsorption energy (Ea) of an NH3 molecule on regular graphene is relatively small (Ea ≤ 0.11 eV [6][30]), but it is much higher for defect (up to

Photocatalysis applications of some hybrid polymeric composites incorporating TiO₂ nanoparticles and their combinations with SiO₂/Fe₂O₃

• Andreea Laura Chibac,
• Tinca Buruiana,
• Violeta Melinte and
• Emil C. Buruiana

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 272–286, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.30

• process was measured by the intensity changes of the absorption band of the hydroxybenzenes as a function of the irradiation time. To confirm the photocatalytic activity of the hybrid composites with TiO2 NPs, three control experiments (not shown) were carried out. First, the pollutant solutions were kept

• pollutant solutions showed only slight degradation. Therefore, an efficient degradation of toxic organic pollutants needs the presence of light and TiO2-based catalysts. In general, the photocatalytic mechanism of the materials incorporating TiO2 NPs can be described as follows: The TiO2 nanoparticles

Nanocrystalline ZrO₂ and Pt-doped ZrO₂ catalysts for low-temperature CO oxidation

• Amit Singhania and
• Shipra Mital Gupta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 264–271, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.29

• refractory metal [6], in thermal barrier coating [7], gas sensors [8], in solid oxide fuel cells [9], in ceramic production, insulation and abrasives. Carbon monoxide (CO) is considered a major pollutant and it causes serious health problems. It is important to control CO released from natural sources and

Sensitive detection of hydrocarbon gases using electrochemically Pd-modified ZnO chemiresistors

• Elena Dilonardo,
• Michele Penza,
• Marco Alvisi,
• Gennaro Cassano,
• Cinzia Di Franco,
• Francesco Palmisano,
• Luisa Torsi and
• Nicola Cioffi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 82–90, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.9

• ], directly deposited on the surface of sol–gel pre-synthesized ZnO nanostructures. Further post-annealing at 550 °C to obtain ZnO NRs is necessary [45]. The prepared hybrid Pd@ZnO nanostructures are proposed as active layer in chemiresistive gas sensors for the detection of pollutant HCs. The effect of the

Organoclay hybrid materials as precursors of porous ZnO/silica-clay heterostructures for photocatalytic applications

• Marwa Akkari,
• Pilar Aranda,
• Abdessalem Ben Haj Amara and
• Eduardo Ruiz-Hitzky

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1971–1982, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.188

• activity of ZnO/SiO2-clay heterostructures compared to the ZnO-clay materials maybe related to the much higher specific surface area and the larger pore volume of the former. This could also lead to a removal of the pollutant by adsorption instead of just photocatalytic degradation. The current results

Enhanced detection of nitrogen dioxide via combined heating and pulsed UV operation of indium oxide nano-octahedra

• Oriol Gonzalez,
• Sergio Roso,
• Xavier Vilanova and
• Eduard Llobet

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1507–1518, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.144

• power and very sensitive. However, such systems do not meet the requirements of personalized or indoor air pollution monitoring because of the high cost and size of the sensors. In environmental pollution monitoring, the detection of nitrogen dioxide is of particular interest because this pollutant is

• nitrogen dioxide adsorbates depends on the ambient concentration of nitrogen dioxide, which results in increasing sensor resistance values for increasing concentrations of this pollutant gas. Table 1 summarises and compares the detection of nitrogen dioxide under these two different operation modes (i.e

An efficient recyclable magnetic material for the selective removal of organic pollutants

• Clément Monteil,
• Nathalie Bar,
• Agnès Bee and
• Didier Villemin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1447–1453, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.136

• as described above, at the pH value of maximum adsorption (MO: pH 7, MB: pH 14) for 3 h. After that, the particles were re-dispersed in 20 mL of wash water per milligram of NP-PEIP depending on the pollutant: MO was washed with the acidic solution, MB with the basic one. After 5 min of stirring, the

• millimetre-sized beads in which many maghemite nanoparticles are often incorporated in a polymeric network. Interpretation of the pH-responsive pollutant extraction To understand these results, a diagram predicting the specific interactions between particles and dyes according to the pH value is showed in

• . All of these results show that, in the case of maghemite coated with phosphonated PEI adsorbing MO and MB, electrostatic interactions are predominant. Quantities of pollutant extracted according to the percentage of phosphonation Performances of remediation for nanoparticles coated with different

Evaluation of gas-sensing properties of ZnO nanostructures electrochemically doped with Au nanophases

• Elena Dilonardo,
• Michele Penza,
• Marco Alvisi,
• Cinzia Di Franco,
• Francesco Palmisano,
• Luisa Torsi and
• Nicola Cioffi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 22–31, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.3

• improve the sensor sensitivity and selectivity towards other toxic and pollutant gases, such as hydrocarbons. A scheme of ZnO-based chemiresistive gas sensor. A) XPS spectra of the chemical elements in pristine ZnO: Zn 2p spectrum and O 1s spectra, deconvoluted in two components (O–Zn and O–C), of ZnO

Effect of SiN_x diffusion barrier thickness on the structural properties and photocatalytic activity of TiO₂ films obtained by sol–gel dip coating and reactive magnetron sputtering

• Mohamed Nawfal Ghazzal,
• Eric Aubry,
• Nouari Chaoui and
• Didier Robert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2039–2045, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.207

• 2 h as a pollutant model. The details of the procedure and the photoreactor used were reported elsewhere in detail [7]. The photoreactor was placed in a solar box (Atlas, Suntest CPS+) equipped with a Xe lamp as a light source (300 nm < λ < 800 nm) to simulate natural UV–vis radiation. An incident

High photocatalytic activity of V-doped SrTiO₃ porous nanofibers produced from a combined electrospinning and thermal diffusion process

• Panpan Jing,
• Wei Lan,
• Qing Su and
• Erqing Xie

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1281–1286, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.132

• species, such as hydroxyl radicals (·OH) and superoxide anions (O2−). Since Fujishima and Honda first reported photo-electrochemical water splitting using a TiO2 electrode [7], many studies have been carried out on photocatalytic pollutant removal and electronic structures of semiconductors containing d0

Pt- and Pd-decorated MWCNTs for vapour and gas detection at room temperature

• Hamdi Baccar,
• Atef Thamri,
• Pierrick Clément,
• Eduard Llobet and
• Adnane Abdelghani

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 919–927, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.95

• organic compounds, as well as pollutant gases has been studied. Pt- and Pd-decorated multiwalled carbon nanotubes show a fully reversible response to the non-aromatic volatile organic compounds tested when operated at room temperature. In contrast, these nanomaterials were not responsive to the aromatic

• alert the general population or workers in various industries (e.g., petrochemical, road construction and repair or landfill sites) of the presence of abnormally high levels of a given pollutant [8][9]. Carbon nanotubes have a high potential to become a gas sensitive material in such detectors, given

• non-aromatic (ethanol, methanol and acetone) VOCs together with the response to a pollutant gas (NO2) have been investigated. Experimental Carbon nanotube synthesis, functionalisation and metal decoration The carbon nanotubes used in the experiment were purchased from Nanocyl s.a. (Belgium). They were

Transformation of hydrogen titanate nanoribbons to TiO₂ nanoribbons and the influence of the transformation strategies on the photocatalytic performance

• Melita Rutar,
• Nejc Rozman,
• Matej Pregelj,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Romana Cerc Korošec,
• Andrijana Sever Škapin,
• Aleš Mrzel,
• Srečo D. Škapin and
• Polona Umek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 831–844, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.86

• ) were identical to those used for the TG measurements. Measurements of photochemical performance The photocatalytic performance of the prepared TiO2 NRs was measured in a sealed gas–solid continuous flow reactor system. The concentrations of isopropanol (iPrOH), as the model pollutant, and acetone, the

Advances in NO₂ sensing with individual single-walled carbon nanotube transistors

• Kiran Chikkadi,
• Matthias Muoth,
• Cosmin Roman,
• Miroslav Haluska and
• Christofer Hierold

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2179–2191, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.227

• nanotube lattice is held together by strong sp2 C–C bonds, which provide the necessary chemical stability to the carbon nanotube. The sensitivity of SWNTs towards NO2 at ambient temperatures, as reported by Kong et al. [7] is particularly interesting. NO2 is a well-known toxic gas and air pollutant and

Characterization and photocatalytic study of tantalum oxide nanoparticles prepared by the hydrolysis of tantalum oxo-ethoxide Ta₈(μ₃-O)₂(μ-O)₈(μ-OEt)₆(OEt)₁₄

• Subia Ambreen,
• N D Pandey,
• Peter Mayer and
• Ashutosh Pandey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1082–1090, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.121

• to its distinct properties such as large ion diffusion coefficient and high electrochromic reversibility, high dielectric constant, high refractive index, high chemical stability, large band gap [13][14][15] and photocatalytic activity for overall water decomposition and organic pollutant degradation

DFT study of binding and electron transfer from colorless aromatic pollutants to a TiO₂ nanocluster: Application to photocatalytic degradation under visible light irradiation

• Corneliu I. Oprea,
• Petre Panait and
• Mihai A. Gîrţu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1016–1030, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.115

• efficient photocatalytic degradation of pollutants under visible light irradiation has to meet similar requirements to the ones of the dyes in Grätzel cells. In particular, the anchoring mode of the pollutant to the TiO2 surface influences the electron transfer [17]. The most commonly used anchoring group

• nanocluster. To answer the questions raised above we determine the electronic structure and the optical spectra of the pollutant itself, and find where the deprotonation is more likely to take place. We also simulate the pollutant–catalyst system to analyze the binding configurations. We discuss the energy

• level alignment between the pollutant and the catalyst as well as the charge transfer between the pollutants and the oxide. We compare our theoretical results with the experimental data available, particularly with the work of Wang et al. [14] on phenol (Ph), benzoic acid (BA), p-hydroxybenzoic acid

Gas sensing with gold-decorated vertically aligned carbon nanotubes

• Prasantha R. Mudimela,
• Mattia Scardamaglia,
• Oriol González-León,
• Nicolas Reckinger,
• Rony Snyders,
• Eduard Llobet,
• Carla Bittencourt and
• Jean-François Colomer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 910–918, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.104

• decorated with gold nanoparticles were investigated as gas sensitive materials for detecting nitrogen dioxide (NO2) at room temperature. Gold nanoparticles of about 6 nm in diameter were sputtered on the top surface of the carbon nanotube forests to enhance the sensitivity to the pollutant gas. We showed

Pyrite nanoparticles as a Fenton-like reagent for in situ remediation of organic pollutants

• Carolina Gil-Lozano,
• Elisabeth Losa-Adams,
• Alfonso F.-Dávila and
• Luis Gago-Duport

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 855–864, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.97

• , dissolution of pyrite in water promotes the recycling of Fe2+ into Fe3+ and vice versa, triggering Fenton production of HO•, the primary species responsible for oxidative degradation of the pollutant. Our results with the synthetic pyrite nanoparticles demonstrate that H2O2 is indeed generated by iron

• disulfide, in the absence of trace compounds founds in natural pyrite. Our kinetics analysis showed that the pyrite nanoparticles enabled a ca. 8 times greater efficiency of pollutant removal than did the microparticles. The use of synthetic pyrite nanoparticles avoids the dangers of heavy metal release

• a cheap alternative to conventional Fenton approaches for the selective oxidation of pollutant dyes. Experimental Chemicals Copper phthalocyanine-3, 4´, 4´´, 4´´´- tetrasulfonic acid tetrasodium salt (85%), oleylamine (OA, 70%), sulfur (99.99%) and toluene (99.8% anhydrous) were purchased from Sigma

Visible light photooxidative performance of a high-nuclearity molecular bismuth vanadium oxide cluster

• Johannes Tucher and
• Carsten Streb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 711–716, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.83

• pollutant dye indigo Compound 1 was tested as a homogeneous, visible-light driven photooxidation catalyst for the oxidative degradation of the model pollutant dye indigo (hereafter: Ind). To this end, aliquots of cluster 1 and the dye were mixed in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) solution (typical molar ratio

• photooxidative degradation of the model pollutant indigo as a test reaction. Wavelength-dependent photocatalytic activity is reported and high quantum efficiencies of ca. 15% are observed at the UV–vis border. Practical quantum efficiencies >5% are found up to wavelengths of λ = 450 nm. Recycling studies show

Nanostructure sensitization of transition metal oxides for visible-light photocatalysis

• Hongjun Chen and
• Lianzhou Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 696–710, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.82

• visible-light photocatalysis is still in an early phase of development, the photocatalysts have played effective roles in many potential applications including solar fuel production, pollutant decomposition, and water/air purification. In the course of, we believe that a fundamental understanding of the

Applicability and costs of nanofiltration in combination with photocatalysis for the treatment of dye house effluents

• Wolfgang M. Samhaber and
• Minh Tan Nguyen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 476–484, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.55

• considered to offer greater contacting surfaces between the photocatalysts and the pollutant molecules than reactors working with immobilized photocatalysts. Immobilized catalysts have a defined specific surface area, which is connected with the supporting surface. Photoreactors with suspended catalysts