Artificial sunlight and ultraviolet light induced photo-epoxidation of propylene over V-Ti/MCM-41 photocatalyst

• Van-Huy Nguyen,
• Shawn D. Lin,
• Jeffrey Chi-Sheng Wu and
• Hsunling Bai

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 566–576, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.67

• photocatalyst by using artificial sunlight (Xe lamp with/without an Air Mass 1.5 Global Filter at 1.6/18.5 mW·cm−2) and ultraviolet light (Mercury Arc lamp with different filters in the range of 0.1–0.8 mW·cm−2). This is the first report of using artificial sunlight to drive the photo-epoxidation of propylene

• . Over V-Ti/MCM-41 photocatalyst, the propylene oxide (PO) formation rate is 193.0 and 112.1 µmol·gcat−1·h−1 with a PO selectivity of 35.0 and 53.7% under UV light and artificial sunlight, respectively. A normalized light utilization (NLU) index is defined and found to correlate well with the rate of

• tested in this study. Keywords: artificial sunlight; light irradiation effects; photo-epoxidation; ultraviolet (UV) light; V-Ti/MCM-41 photocatalyst; Introduction It is agreed that light, especially its wavelength spectrum and intensity, is a crucial factor for efficient photocatalysis. A

Structural, optical and photocatalytic properties of flower-like ZnO nanostructures prepared by a facile wet chemical method

• Sini Kuriakose,
• Neha Bhardwaj,
• Jaspal Singh,
• Biswarup Satpati and
• Satyabrata Mohapatra

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 763–770, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.87

• decrease in the efficiency of the sunlight driven photocatalytic degradation of MB. Results and Discussion Figure 1 shows the XRD patterns of the as-synthesized samples S1, S2 and S3 (see Experimental section for the naming scheme). The observed well-defined peaks in the spectra can be indexed to the

• Figures 4a–c show the UV–vis absorption spectra of an aqueous solution of 22.4 μM MB with either photocatalyst S1, S2 or S3 after irradiation with sunlight for different durations of time. The characteristic absorption peak of MB at 664 nm is monitored as a function of the sunlight exposure time. It can

• is still clearly visible even after 120 min of irradiation. No new absorption peaks appear in the UV–vis region, which clearly indicates the complete photocatalytic degradation of MB. It must be pointed out here that an adsorption of MB onto the ZnO nanostructures in dark prior to sunlight exposure

Near-field effects and energy transfer in hybrid metal-oxide nanostructures

• Ulrich Herr,
• Barat Achinuq,
• Cahit Benel,
• Giorgos Papageorgiou,
• Manuel Goncalves,
• Johannes Boneberg,
• Paul Leiderer,
• Paul Ziemann,
• Peter Marek and
• Horst Hahn

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 306–317, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.34

• supplying sufficient energy to present and future generations lies in techniques for using renewable energies, such as wind, water and direct sunlight. Direct conversion of sunlight by photovoltaics is an extremely attractive method of energy conversion, since the “final product” is supplied already in a

• most useful form. On the other hand, the storage of energy is a particularly important issue in this case, since the energy supplied by photovoltaics depends on the local and temporal availability of sunlight. There is again general agreement on the fact that the use of renewable energy sources

Self-assembled monolayers and titanium dioxide: From surface patterning to potential applications

• Yaron Paz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 845–861, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.94

Biomimetic materials

• Wilhelm Barthlott and
• Kerstin Koch

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 135–136, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.16

• ) and radiation (e.g., sunlight). Boundary layers and, in particular, superhydrophobic surfaces and their interactions with the environment were thus the focus of this Thematic Series on Biomimetic materials. The most interesting phenomena happen on boundary layers: from the biosphere at the boundary

Enhanced visible light photocatalysis through fast crystallization of zinc oxide nanorods

• Sunandan Baruah,
• Mohammad Abbas Mahmood,
• Myo Tay Zar Myint,
• Tanujjal Bora and
• Joydeep Dutta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2010, 1, 14–20, doi:10.3762/bjnano.1.3

• ][3][4]. Optical absorption in the ultraviolet region (peaking around 220 nm) [5] and low photoefficiency [6][7] are factors that deter the wide scale use of TiO2 for photocatalytic activities under sunlight. Zinc oxide (ZnO), with a high surface reactivity owing to a large number of native defect