Bombyx mori silk/titania/gold hybrid materials for photocatalytic water splitting: combining renewable raw materials with clean fuels

• Stefanie Krüger,
• Michael Schwarze,
• Otto Baumann,
• Christina Günter,
• Michael Bruns,
• Christian Kübel,
• Dorothée Vinga Szabó,
• Rafael Meinusch,
• Verónica de Zea Bermudez and
• Andreas Taubert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 187–204, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.21

• of 5 and 7–18 nm, respectively. Addition of poly(ethylene oxide) to the reaction mixture enables pore size tuning, thus providing access to different materials with different photocatalytic activities. Water splitting experiments using a sunlight simulator and a Xe lamp show that the new hybrid

• not exceed ca. 3 eV to most efficiently use the visible spectral range of the sunlight [6]. As a result, numerous water-splitting catalysts with various efficiencies have been reported [6][7][8][11][12][13]. Because of its bandgap of 3.0–3.2 eV (depending on the crystal structure and particle size [14

• bandgap of the TiO2 semiconductors [21]. Gallo et al. used amorphous TiO2 doped with Au and/or platinum (Pt) NPs to split water under ultraviolet (UV)-A light and simulated sunlight. Best results with 1.6 mmol/(h·g) of H2 production were obtained with Au0.5Pt0.5/TiO2 catalysts [22]. Chen et al. used

Review on optofluidic microreactors for artificial photosynthesis

• Xiaowen Huang,
• Jianchun Wang,
• Tenghao Li,
• Jianmei Wang,
• Min Xu,
• Weixing Yu,
• Abdel El Abed and
• Xuming Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 30–41, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.5

• utilize sunlight, water and CO2 to synthesize energy-rich carbohydrates [10][11]. The chloroplast is the place where NPS occurs. To clearly introduce this organelle, progressively smaller structures (plant cell, chloroplast, thylakoid membrane) of a general leaf are shown in Figure 1A–D. Each chloroplast

• (Figure 1C) contains numerous thylakoids. On the thylakoid membrane, the natural light-harvesting antenna complexes, photosystem II (PS II, P680) and photosystem I (PS I, P700), capture the photons and regenerate the coenzyme for carbohydrates synthesis (Figure 1D). However, in APS, sunlight is used to

• low energy conversion efficiency (typically <1%) to capture sunlight and CO2 for the production of carbohydrates, even after billions of years of evolution, and it is far from its theoretical limit of 30% [48]. This gives great room to develop an improved scientific solution to produce basic food

Facile synthesis of silver/silver thiocyanate (Ag@AgSCN) plasmonic nanostructures with enhanced photocatalytic performance

• Xinfu Zhao,
• Dairong Chen,
• Abdul Qayum,
• Bo Chen and
• Xiuling Jiao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2781–2789, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.277

• nm. The absorption peak of silver nanoparticles becomes gradually stronger as the content of Ag increases, indicating that the sunlight utilization efficiency increases steadily. During UV irradiation, many defects are formed in AgSCN, including different interstitial sites and vacancies [29]. The

• to the light irradiation. The degradation was performed under visible-light irradiation by using a halogen lamp (400 W) with a UV cutoff filter (λ ≥ 420 nm). The halogen lamp spectrum is commonly used to simulate the sunlight spectrum, in which the visible light is about 60–80%. An ≈3 mL aliquot was

CdSe nanorod/TiO₂ nanoparticle heterojunctions with enhanced solar- and visible-light photocatalytic activity

• Fakher Laatar,
• Hatem Moussa,
• Halima Alem,
• Lavinia Balan,
• Emilien Girot,
• Ghouti Medjahdi,
• Hatem Ezzaouia and
• Raphaël Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2741–2752, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.273

• the narrow bandgap of CdSe NRs serves to increase the photoresponse of CdSe/TiO2 composites until ≈725 nm. The CdSe (2 wt %)/TiO2 composite exhibits the highest photocatalytic activity for the degradation of rhodamine B in aqueous solution under simulated sunlight or visible light irradiation. The

• of rhodamine B (RhB) in aqueous solution. Our results demonstrate that the composite containing 2 wt % CdSe NRs exhibits the optimal photocatalytic activity under solar or visible light irradiation. Moreover, the photocatalytic response was maintained after ten cycles in simulated sunlight. A

• simulated solar light and ≈70% of RhB is bleached after 6.25 h of irradiation. A similar hypsochromic shift of the absorption band at 553 nm to that observed under simulated sunlight irradiation was observed, indicating that photooxidative N-de-ethylation of RhB occurred in the early stages of its

Growth and characterization of textured well-faceted ZnO on planar Si(100), planar Si(111), and textured Si(100) substrates for solar cell applications

• Chin-Yi Tsai,
• Jyong-Di Lai,
• Shih-Wei Feng,
• Chien-Jung Huang,
• Chien-Hsun Chen,
• Fann-Wei Yang,
• Hsiang-Chen Wang and
• Li-Wei Tu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1939–1945, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.194

• sunlight from the metals, but they can also serve the function of antireflection coating (ARC) films, given proper design of the film thickness. A ZnO thin film with appropriate doping could potentially act as the emitter with a Si substrate base to form a heterostructure solar cell. Therefore, in the most

Two-dimensional carbon-based nanocomposites for photocatalytic energy generation and environmental remediation applications

• Suneel Kumar,
• Ashish Kumar,
• Ashish Bahuguna,
• Vipul Sharma and
• Venkata Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1571–1600, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.159

• Suneel Kumar Ashish Kumar Ashish Bahuguna Vipul Sharma Venkata Krishnan School of Basic Sciences and Advanced Materials Research Center, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, Kamand, Mandi 175005, H.P., India 10.3762/bjnano.8.159 Abstract In the pursuit towards the use of sunlight as a

• way by using two of the most abundant natural resources, namely sunlight and water. Over the past few years, carbon-based nanocomposites, particularly graphene and graphitic carbon nitride, have attracted much attention as interesting materials in this field. Due to their unique chemical and physical

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

• , multicomponent NPs have been also integrated with graphene, but such examples are still very few to date [29]. In a photovoltaic cell, sunlight energy is directly converted to electricity. Graphene and graphene–NP hybrids have been investigated extensively in the field of solar cells because of their unique

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

• , they are active only in UV light (<4% of sunlight) owing to their wide bandgap (3.2 eV), which absorbs photons with wavelengths shorter than 400 nm. Also, TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) have a low adsorption capacity for hydrophobic molecules, and if they are used for water treatment, severe problems during

• as that of the inorganic nanoparticles taken alone, as well as the general need of exploitation of the catalysts in several cycles, our composites with simple or hybridized TiO2 NPs seem to be a more suitable solution for water treatment under sunlight. The catalytic performance of the synthesized

• . The presence of Fe2O3 NPs extended the light absorption of TiO2 into the visible range, a feature that recommends their use in water purification under sunlight. Experimental Materials Titanium(IV) isopropoxide (TTIP), glacial acetic acid, tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), iron(II) chloride

Laser irradiation in water for the novel, scalable synthesis of black TiO_x photocatalyst for environmental remediation

• Massimo Zimbone,
• Giuseppe Cacciato,
• Mohamed Boutinguiza,
• Vittorio Privitera and
• Maria Grazia Grimaldi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 196–202, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.21

• and the creation of acceptor states. These states are responsible for the visibly dark coloration and, consequently, for sunlight absorption [23]. Unfortunately, this material is not suitable for industrial implementation since it requires up to 20 bar of hydrogen pressure and up to 15 days of

Tandem polymer solar cells: simulation and optimization through a multiscale scheme

• Fanan Wei,
• Ligang Yao,
• Fei Lan,
• Guangyong Li and
• Lianqing Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 123–133, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.13

• demonstrated to be one of the most effective solutions. Due to the unavoidable mismatch between the absorption spectrum of active materials and that of the sunlight, a large portion of the sunlight energy will be lost in organic photovoltaics when a single active material is employed. Thus, as illustrated in

• devices. Additionally, this approach can be easily applied to optimizing tandem solar cells based on other materials as long as the refractive index and local carrier mobility of the new materials are available. (a) Spectrum of sunlight and different active materials used in tandem organic solar cells. (b

Role of RGO support and irradiation source on the photocatalytic activity of CdS–ZnO semiconductor nanostructures

• Suneel Kumar,
• Rahul Sharma,
• Vipul Sharma,
• Gurunarayanan Harith,
• Vaidyanathan Sivakumar and
• Venkata Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1684–1697, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.161

• characterized using different spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. The photocatalytic activity was evaluated by studying the degradation of a model dye (methyl orange, MO) under visible light (only) irradiation and under natural sunlight. The results reveal that the RGO-supported CdS–ZnO photocatalyst

• performs considerably better than the unsupported CdS–ZnO nanostructures. In addition, both the catalysts perform significantly better under natural sunlight than under visible light (only) irradiation. In essence, this work paves way for tailoring the photocatalytic activity of semiconductor

• −2) having a UV cut-off filter (λ > 420 nm) was used for visible light illumination. Another set of experiments were performed under natural sunlight and the light intensity was measured using a LX-101A digital luxmeter. At periodic time intervals, the photo-reacted suspension (ca. 1 mL) was analyzed

High performance Ce-doped ZnO nanorods for sunlight-driven photocatalysis

• Bilel Chouchene,
• Tahar Ben Chaabane,
• Lavinia Balan,
• Emilien Girot,
• Kevin Mozet,
• Ghouti Medjahdi and
• Raphaël Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1338–1349, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.125

Selective photocatalytic reduction of CO₂ to methanol in CuO-loaded NaTaO₃ nanocubes in isopropanol

• Tianyu Xiang,
• Feng Xin,
• Jingshuai Chen,
• Yuwen Wang,
• Xiaohong Yin and
• Xiao Shao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 776–783, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.69

• ]. To date, many methods have been proposed to reduce the emitted CO2 concentration. A particularly advantageous approach is the capture of CO2 from the atmosphere for the conversion to fuel by using a sustainable source of energy like sunlight. In this way, global warming and energy shortage problems

Synthesis and applications of carbon nanomaterials for energy generation and storage

• Marco Notarianni,
• Jinzhang Liu,
• Kristy Vernon and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 149–196, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.17

Green and energy-efficient methods for the production of metallic nanoparticles

• Mitra Naghdi,
• Mehrdad Taheran,
• Satinder K. Brar,
• M. Verma,
• R. Y. Surampalli and
• J. R. Valero

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2354–2376, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.243

• Ag NPs with the size of around 20 nm at room temperature within 2–5 min. They conducted two different experiments under sunlight and in dark and observed that sunlight does not have any significant effect on the formation of Ag NPs [67]. In the same work, Saxena et al. employed the leaf extract of

Light-powered, artificial molecular pumps: a minimalistic approach

• Giulio Ragazzon,
• Massimo Baroncini,
• Serena Silvi,
• Margherita Venturi and
• Alberto Credi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2096–2104, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.214

• limit for the energy conversion efficiency of 9 × 10−5. Despite such a low conversion efficiency, this study clearly demonstrates that the synergy between photochemical reactions and self-assembly processes can lead to innovative methods for the conversion of sunlight into chemical energy [35

Nanostructures for sensors, electronics, energy and environment II

• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1937–1938, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.197

• characterization of functional objects. The existing energy crisis could be mediated not only by new and more efficient methods of collecting sunlight, but also by saving resources by applying developments in storage, electronics and sensors. Conventional energy sources are limited and most of them generate

PLGA nanoparticles as a platform for vitamin D-based cancer therapy

• Maria J. Ramalho,
• Joana A. Loureiro,
• Bárbara Gomes,
• Manuela F. Frasco,
• Manuel A. N. Coelho and
• M. Carmo Pereira

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1306–1318, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.135

• cell morphological features. Keywords: 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3; calcitriol; cancer therapy; drug delivery; poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid); Introduction Vitamin D3, a secosteroid hormone produced through sunlight exposure [1], can be found with different chemical structures: calciol or

Palladium nanoparticles anchored to anatase TiO₂ for enhanced surface plasmon resonance-stimulated, visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity

• Kah Hon Leong,
• Hong Ye Chu,
• Shaliza Ibrahim and
• Pichiah Saravanan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 428–437, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.43

• Lumpur, Malaysia 10.3762/bjnano.6.43 Abstract Freely assembled palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs) on titania (TiO2) nano photocatalysts were successfully synthesized through a photodeposition method using natural sunlight. This synthesized heterogeneous photocatalyst (Pd/TiO2) was characterized through

• ; nano photocatalysts; noble metal; photodeposition; sunlight; Introduction Heterogeneous photocatalysts that employ TiO2 as metal oxide photocatalyst have raised the interest of many researchers since the discovery of the photocatalytic splitting of water under UV light irradiation by Fujishima and

• plasmonic Au nanoparticles deposited on top of TiO2 [27]. While Mohapatra et al. had synthesized TiO2 nanotubes with palladium (Pd) NPs for the photocatalytic decomposition of azo dyes under sunlight irradiation. Pd/TiO2 nanotubes showed a faster degradation time (150 min) to completely decompose azo dye as

Interaction of dermatologically relevant nanoparticles with skin cells and skin

• Annika Vogt,
• Fiorenza Rancan,
• Sebastian Ahlberg,
• Berouz Nazemi,
• Chun Sik Choe,
• Maxim E. Darvin,
• Sabrina Hadam,
• Ulrike Blume-Peytavi,
• Kateryna Loza,
• Jörg Diendorf,
• Matthias Epple,
• Christina Graf,
• Eckart Rühl,
• Martina C. Meinke and
• Jürgen Lademann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2363–2373, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.245

• found in patients with inflammatory skin diseases, structural defects of the barrier and open wounds or barrier dysfunction in response to excessive sunlight exposure. We show that toxic effects of particles per se have to be differentiated from secondary effects, e.g., ion release from silver particles

Nanobioarchitectures based on chlorophyll photopigment, artificial lipid bilayers and carbon nanotubes

• Marcela Elisabeta Barbinta-Patrascu,
• Stefan Marian Iordache,
• Ana Maria Iordache,
• Nicoleta Badea and
• Camelia Ungureanu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2316–2325, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.240

• , which has been exploited in the preparation of anti-aging cosmetics and sunscreen creams to protect skin against free radicals formed by the body or by UV sunlight [10]. The goal of this work is to achieve antioxidant and antibacterial bionanomaterials based on liposomes and carbon nanotubes, which

Growth and characterization of CNT–TiO₂ heterostructures

• Yucheng Zhang,
• Ivo Utke,
• Johann Michler,
• Gabriele Ilari,
• Marta D. Rossell and
• Rolf Erni

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 946–955, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.108

• -effectively and environmentally friendly, is a good candidate for electrochemical photocatalysis [6], recent research shows that its limited absorption of only the UV part of the sunlight spectrum can be extended to visible light when forming a nanocomposite with CNTs [7][8][9]. This can significantly

Biomolecule-assisted synthesis of carbon nitride and sulfur-doped carbon nitride heterojunction nanosheets: An efficient heterojunction photocatalyst for photoelectrochemical applications

• Hua Bing Tao,
• Hong Bin Yang,
• Jiazang Chen,
• Jianwei Miao and
• Bin Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 770–777, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.89

• different light source and the EQE spectra. Figure 6c exhibits the photoresponse of CN, CNS and CN/CNS under different light sources. It can be observed that the photocurrent can be reproducibly produced under AM 1.5G simulated sunlight or visible light (λ > 420 nm) with the same trend following the order

• solution. (b) Current density–voltage (J–V) curves for CN, CNS and CN/CNS electrodes under simulated sunlight (AM 1.5, 100 mW/cm2). All experiments were performed in 0.2 M Na2SO4 aqueous solution at a scan rate of 10 mV/s. (c) Current density–time (J–t) curves for CN, CNS and CN/CNS electrodes with 0.4 V

• bias vs Ag/AgCl under simulated sunlight (AM 1.5, 100 mW/cm2) and visible light (λ > 420 nm). (d) External quantum efficiency (EQE) of CN, CNS and CN/CNS photoelectrodes. Supporting Information Supporting Information File 50: Additional experimental data. Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge

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

• the photooxidative performance of the cluster at various wavelengths in the visible region to evaluate cluster application for sunlight-driven oxidation reactions. Further, initial mechanistic catalysis studies are discussed where reactive intermediates and effects of oxygen in the reaction mixture

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

• Hongjun Chen Lianzhou Wang Nanomaterials Centre, School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia 10.3762/bjnano.5.82 Abstract To better utilize the sunlight for efficient solar energy conversion, the research on visible-light active

• bandgap, which is, narrower and has a higher CB minimum or lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) in comparison with wide-bandgap transition metal oxides. Because a photosensitizer normally has a narrow bandgap, it can absorb the visible sunlight and even the infrared sunlight to generate electron

• carbon nanodots can effectively harness the broad spectrum of sunlight to improve the photocatalytic activities of monoclinic bismuth vanadate (m-BiVO4) for the photodegradation of methylene blue [133]. The carbon nanodots play a twofold role in this photocatalytic process. Firstly, carbon nanodots