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

• mechanically and chemically stable to withstand the conditions during photocatalysis. Daoud and Xin [35] coated cotton fibers with 20 nm anatase particles via a sol–gel method. The covalently bonded TiO2 particles have a 50+ UV protection factor and are stable against washing. In an alternative approach, Zheng

• showed the same behavior and the deviations between the individual measurements were below 1%. Elemental analysis (EA) for C, H, and N was performed on a Vario EL III (elementar). Photocatalysis experiments were done in a planar photoreactor with defined geometry consisting of a stainless steel housing

Co-reductive fabrication of carbon nanodots with high quantum yield for bioimaging of bacteria

• Jiajun Wang,
• Xia Liu,
• Gesmi Milcovich,
• Tzu-Yu Chen,
• Edel Durack,
• Sarah Mallen,
• Yongming Ruan,
• Xuexiang Weng and
• Sarah P. Hudson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 137–145, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.16

• water, low photobleaching and low cytotoxicity. They show great potential for bioimaging, photocatalysis, energy conversion, fluorescent ink and sensing applications [1][2][3]. In a bioimaging application perspective, the detection of bacteria by microscopic visualization is an essential benchmark

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

• review will start with a brief introduction on the mechanisms of photocatalysis-based APS (water splitting, CO2 reduction and coenzyme regeneration). Then we will introduce the representative designs of these three areas with an emphasis on how they help solve the existing problems in their respective

• -efficiency photocatalysis [67]. In summary, the basic mechanism of APS is comprised of three processes: (1) generation of charge carriers (i.e., electrons and holes), (2) separation and transfer of charge carriers, and (3) chemical reactions between surface species and charge carriers. Based on this

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

• ) Kinetic curves for the oxytetracycline degradation with M0, M1, M2, M3, M4, M5. (c) The cycle curves of oxytetracycline degradation using M2 as a photocatalyst. (d) TEM images of M2 after five cyclic experiments. (a) Photocatalysis mechanism of the Ag@AgSCN plasmonic photocatalyst. (b) Photocatalytic

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

• catalysts show high potential for real water decontamination. Keywords: CdSe nanorods; heterojunction; photocatalysis; TiO2; Introduction The development of efficient photocatalysts to address environmental and energy needs, such as degradation of harmful organic compounds in water and in the air or the

Hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO quantum dot/KNb₃O₈ nanosheet photocatalysts for reducing carbon dioxide to methanol

• Xiao Shao,
• Weiyue Xin and
• Xiaohong Yin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2264–2270, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.226

• production rate was found to increase to 1539.77 μmol/g/h. Thus, the ZnO quantum dots obviously prompted separation of charge carriers, which was explained by a proposed mechanism for this photocatalytic reaction. Keywords: CO2 reduction; KNb3O8 nanosheets; methanol production; photocatalysis; ZnO quantum

Evaluating the toxicity of TiO₂-based nanoparticles to Chinese hamster ovary cells and Escherichia coli: a complementary experimental and computational approach

• Alicja Mikolajczyk,
• Natalia Sizochenko,
• Ewa Mulkiewicz,
• Anna Malankowska,
• Michal Nischk,
• Przemyslaw Jurczak,
• Seishiro Hirano,
• Grzegorz Nowaczyk,
• Adriana Zaleska-Medynska,
• Jerzy Leszczynski,
• Agnieszka Gajewicz and
• Tomasz Puzyn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2171–2180, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.216

• ]. Photocatalysis is an effective and environmentally friendly photooxidation process [2]. Development and application of photocatalysis techniques are reasonably economical endeavor. Photocatalysis could be a more reliable method than traditional methods for the inactivation of bacteria (i.e., UV disinfection and

Synthesis and characterization of noble metal–titania core–shell nanostructures with tunable shell thickness

• Bartosz Bartosewicz,
• Marta Michalska-Domańska,
• Malwina Liszewska,
• Dariusz Zasada and
• Bartłomiej J. Jankiewicz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2083–2093, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.208

• use in many fields. For example, TiO2 nanomaterials have been investigated for their use in photocatalysis [12][13][14], photocatalytic fuel generation [15], photovoltaics and sensors [16][17]. The CSNs with noble metal (Au, Ag) nanoparticles (NPs) as a core and TiO2 shell, Au@TiO2 and Ag@TiO2, have

• 20–30 nm up to 100 nm simply by changing the titania precursor concentration. These as-prepared materials have significant absorption in the UV and visible range and therefore have high potential for applications in solar-light-driven photocatalysis and photovoltaics. In addition, we show for the

• interesting materials for application in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) and photocatalysis. In fact, it has been shown that plasmonic nanostructures can enhance the efficiency of DSSCs by four possible mechanisms [66]. The far-field coupling of scattered light and the near-field coupling of

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

• carbon nitride-based nanocomposites as photocatalysts for energy and environmental applications is discussed in detail. This review concludes by highlighting the advantages and challenges involved in the use of two-dimensional carbon-based nanocomposites for photocatalysis. Finally, the future

• perspectives of research in this field are also briefly mentioned. Keywords: energy generation; environmental remediation; graphene; graphitic carbon nitride; nanocomposites; photocatalysis; two-dimensional carbon; Review Introduction The problems of global energy shortage and environmental pollution are

• ]. Hence, in the recent decade, heterogeneous photocatalysis has been widely explored for the conversion of solar energy into chemical energy and for pollutant removal from water [11][12]. Up to now, various interesting semiconductors such as TiO2, ZnO, WO3, CdS, Bi2O3, Fe2O3, SnO2, BiVO4, etc. have been

Fabrication of hierarchically porous TiO₂ nanofibers by microemulsion electrospinning and their application as anode material for lithium-ion batteries

• Jin Zhang,
• Yibing Cai,
• Xuebin Hou,
• Xiaofei Song,
• Pengfei Lv,
• Huimin Zhou and
• Qufu Wei

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1297–1306, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.131

• China 10.3762/bjnano.8.131 Abstract Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanofibers have been widely applied in various fields including photocatalysis, energy storage and solar cells due to the advantages of low cost, high abundance and nontoxicity. However, the low conductivity of ions and bulk electrons hinder

ZnO nanoparticles sensitized by CuInZn_xS_2+x quantum dots as highly efficient solar light driven photocatalysts

• Florian Donat,
• Serge Corbel,
• Halima Alem,
• Steve Pontvianne,
• Lavinia Balan,
• Ghouti Medjahdi and
• Raphaël Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1080–1093, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.110

• . The activity of the ZnO/ZCIS composite is retained at over 90% of its original value after ten successive photocatalytic runs, indicating its high stability and its potential for practical photocatalytic applications. Keywords: heterojunction; photocatalysis; quantum dots; reactive oxygen species

• ; singlet oxygen; ZCIS quantum dots; ZnO; Introduction Over the last twenty years, the field of photocatalysis has attracted wide attention due to the environmental and energy crisis. Photocatalysis is considered to be a green technology, allowing the degradation of numerous contaminants both in water and

• absorption coefficients and bandgaps covering almost the whole visible spectrum [21][22][23], which is of high interest for solar-driven photocatalysis. CIS or ZCIS QDs have recently been associated with TiO2 [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] and ZnO [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] nanoparticles to

Near-field surface plasmon field enhancement induced by rippled surfaces

• Mario D’Acunto,
• Francesco Fuso,
• Ruggero Micheletto,
• Makoto Naruse,
• Francesco Tantussi and
• Maria Allegrini

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 956–967, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.97

• frequency. By changing the frequency, one can excite different nanometer-sized hot spots on a film. This effect has high potential for various applications in SERS, plasmon-enhanced photocatalysis and sensing applications [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. In addition, polarization plays a fundamental

Investigation of the photocatalytic efficiency of tantalum alkoxy carboxylate-derived Ta₂O₅ nanoparticles in rhodamine B removal

• Subia Ambreen,
• Mohammad Danish,
• Narendra D. Pandey and
• Ashutosh Pandey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 604–613, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.65

• removal, sedimentation and filtration are not very effective in removing organic dyes. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) receive a lot of interest in this regard, and photocatalysis by semiconductors is the most extensively investigated AOP. Metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs), for example TiO2, ZnO, SnO2

Functionalized TiO₂ nanoparticles by single-step hydrothermal synthesis: the role of the silane coupling agents

• Antoine R. M. Dalod,
• Lars Henriksen,
• Tor Grande and
• Mari-Ann Einarsrud

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 304–312, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.33

• Because of the high surface-to-volume ratio, the intrinsic properties of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles have led to exploitation in many fields such as in photocatalysis [1], solar cells [2], and in biomedical applications [3]. The naturally occurring phases of TiO2 are rutile (thermodynamically

• synthesis often leads to poorly crystalline particles [22]. Hydrothermal synthesis [23] is simple and cost efficient [24] and allows for improved crystallinity compared to sol–gel methods [22] giving improved TiO2 characteristics for applications such as photocatalysis and solar cell applications [2][25][26

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

• nanocatalysts. Keywords: hybrid polymer composites; maghemite nanoparticles; photocatalysis; TiO2 nanoparticles; UV–visible irradiation; Introduction Over the last years, titania nanomaterials have attracted a lot of attention as they have found numerous applications in the field of dye-sensitized solar cells

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

• Universitario, 36310 Vigo, Spain Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Catania, via S. Sofia 64, 95123 Catania, Italy 10.3762/bjnano.8.21 Abstract Since 1970, TiO2 photocatalysis has been considered a possible alternative for sustainable water treatment. This is due to its material stability

• trap surface states for holes in an amorphous hydrogenated TiOx layer. Keywords: black titania; laser irradiation in water; photocatalysis; TiOx; water treatment; Introduction The interest in titanium dioxide dates back in 1972, thanks to the pioneering work of Honda and Fujishima [1]. TiO2 has been

Optical and photocatalytic properties of TiO₂ nanoplumes

• Viviana Scuderi,
• Massimo Zimbone,
• Maria Miritello,
• Giuseppe Nicotra,
• Giuliana Impellizzeri and
• Vittorio Privitera

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 190–195, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.20

• ; photocatalysis; titanium dioxide (TiO2); Introduction Today water, energy, and food are the most urgent problems of humanity. Since the seminal work of Honda and Fujishima in 1972 where photo-induced decomposition of water was discovered [1], semiconductor photocatalysis has shown great potential not only for

Diffusion of dilute gas in arrays of randomly distributed, vertically aligned, high-aspect-ratio cylinders

• Wojciech Szmyt,
• Carlos Guerra and
• Ivo Utke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 64–73, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.7

• potential fields of applications such as photovoltaics [7], photocatalysis [8], organic electronics [9] and supercapacitors [10]. Surface functionalisation and nanoengineering of high-aspect-ratio nanocylinder arrays often involve the exposure of the structures to gas-phase chemicals, for instance, during

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

• water solution was tested using methylene blue and ibuprofen compounds, respectively, as model of pollutants. Keywords: delamination; montmorillonite; organoclays; photocatalysis; porous clay heterostructures; sepiolite; ZnO nanoparticles; Introduction In the last decades, great effort has been

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

• no marked detrimental effect on the photocatalytic activity was observed. Finally, recyclability experiments demonstrate that ZnO:Ce rods are a stable solar-light photocatalyst. Keywords: Ce doping; photocatalysis; solvothermal synthesis; ZnO rods; Introduction Due to the increasing pollution of

• water and air, there is a growing interest to find sustainable, efficient and cheap solutions to purify these media. In this context, semiconductor photocatalysis technology has been thoroughly studied since 1972 to solve environmental and energy challenges [1]. After absorption of light with an

• crystalline structure by Ce doping and the ability of this element to trap photogenerated charge carriers, Ce-doped ZnO (ZnO:Ce) particles have also gained high interest for photocatalysis. Recently, a few Ce3+- or Ce4+-doped ZnO photocatalyst containing large particles of spherical or needle morphology have

Direct formation of gold nanorods on surfaces using polymer-immobilised gold seeds

• Majid K. Abyaneh,
• Pietro Parisse and
• Loredana Casalis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 809–816, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.72

• ], photocatalysis [25], chemical sensing, biosensing [26][27] and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) [28]. Last but not least, the synthesis process can be easily extended to screen printing or other thick film deposition processes for batch synthesis procedures [29]. Results and Discussion There are

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

• the good crystallinity, morphology and proper amount of CuO loading, which functioned as reductive sites for selective formation of methanol. The reaction mechanism was also proposed and explained by band theory. Keywords: CO2 reduction; CuO loading; isopropanol; NaTaO3 nanocubes; photocatalysis

Impact of ultrasonic dispersion on the photocatalytic activity of titania aggregates

• Hoai Nga Le,
• Frank Babick,
• Klaus Kühn,
• Minh Tan Nguyen,
• Michael Stintz and
• Gianaurelio Cuniberti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2423–2430, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.250

• path of the molecules to be treated. This paper investigates the effect of aggregate size on the photocatalytic activity of pyrogenic titania (Aeroxide® P25, Evonik), which is widely used in fundamental photocatalysis research. Well-defined and reproducible aggregate sizes were achieved by ultrasonic

• oxidation, discoloration, mineralization, and degradation of organic pollutants [1][2]. Photocatalysis is an example of an AOP that has been effectively applied for the treatment of highly polluted water such as dye sewage [3][4]. Among the materials for this application, titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a very

• conducted with commercial titanium(IV) oxide powder (Aeroxide® P25, Evonik, CAS-No. 13463-67-7), which consists of an approximately 80/20 w/w rutile/anatase mixture. MB (Merck, KGaA), a model substance in dye wastewater research [4][7], was chosen as the organic compound in the photocatalysis. The

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

• films obtained by each process was discussed. Keywords: diffusion barrier; photocatalysis; reactive sputtering; SiNx; sol–gel; titanium dioxide film; TiO2; Introduction Titanium dioxide thin films in active phase (mostly anatase) have been widely studied due to their ability to produce strong oxidant

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

• nanofibers is possibly attributed to the V5+ ion doping increasing the light utilization as well as to the outstanding porous features, the excellent component and structure stability. Keywords: electrospinning; photocatalysis; porous nanofibers; SrTiO3; thermal diffusion; vanadium-ion doping; Introduction

• , chemical fertilizers and phenol [4]. Fortunately, a new and eco-friendly photocatalysis technique has drawn much attention. Photocatalysts are capable of accelerating the oxidation and mineralization of such organic substances with a fast removal rate [5][6] by producing strongly reactive and nonselective

• metal ions [8][9][10][11], such as Ti4+, Zr4+, Ta5+, Nb5+ and V5+, as well as the development of new photocatalysts. Strontium titanate (SrTiO3), an important multifunctional semiconductor, has been applied in photocatalysis technology for water splitting and organic contaminant degradation [12][13