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

• generated by UV irradiation of photocatalysts in the reaction system. Commonly applied photocatalysts include TiO2, ZnO, Fe2O3, CdS, GaP and ZnS. Among these, titanium dioxide (TiO2) has attracted great interest in research and development because of its mechanical properties, chemical and thermal stability

• and resistance to chemical breakdown, which promote its application in photocatalytic water treatment [7][9][12][13]. Photocatalysts can be used in the form of suspended fine particles or immobilized on various supports. Obviously, photoreactors with a suspended catalysts (or slurry type) are

• 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

Dye-sensitized Pt@TiO₂ core–shell nanostructures for the efficient photocatalytic generation of hydrogen

• Jun Fang,
• Lisha Yin,
• Shaowen Cao,
• Yusen Liao and
• Can Xue

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 360–364, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.41

• ], TiO2 has received extensive attention as one of the promising semiconductor photocatalysts, because of its high chemical stability, low cost and non-toxicity [2][3][4][5]. However, it suffers from the wide band gap (3.2–3.4 eV), which restricts the utilization of visible light, and the high

• simultaneously, the dye-sensitization-driven H2 evolution showed a much higher efficiency as compared to the situation with no excitation of TiO2. This kind of synergic effect reveals a new direction for improving the efficiency of composite photocatalysts by using selective excitation wavelengths. Results and

• have prepared Pt@TiO2 core–shell nanostructures through a one-step hydrothermal method. Upon ErB sensitization, the Pt@TiO2 core–shell photocatalysts exhibit high visible-light activity for the generation of H2 from proton reduction. Significantly, we observed a synergic effect that allows for a

Preparation of NiS/ZnIn₂S₄ as a superior photocatalyst for hydrogen evolution under visible light irradiation

• Liang Wei,
• Yongjuan Chen,
• Jialin Zhao and
• Zhaohui Li

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 949–955, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.107

• electrodes for water splitting by Fujishima and Honda in 1972, great efforts have been devoted to the development of highly efficient semiconductor photocatalysts for hydrogen production [4]. So far, a variety of active photocatalysts for hydrogen production, including metal oxides [5][6][7][8], sulfides [9

• ] or RGO [23] into ZnIn2S4 nanostructures, the photocatalytic performance for hydrogen evolution over ZnIn2S4 have been enhanced to a certain degree. Studies on semiconductor-based photocatalysts revealed that the deposition of a suitable co-catalyst on the semiconductor photocatalysts can play

• water electrolysis [36]. Although Ni and NiO have already been used as co-catalysts for hydrogen evolution over oxide semiconductor photocatalysts, the application of NiS as co-catalyst for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution is less studied [37][38]. Only until recently, Xu et al. reported that NiS can

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

• photocatalysts such as ZnO and TiO2 have attracted significant attention in recent years because of their wide-spread application in environmental remediation [1][2]. These photocatalysts have a high efficiency for the degradation of toxic organic pollutants that originate from the effluents of textile and

• synthesized by Umar et al. [31] for an efficient photocatalysis and the fabrication of efficient dye sensitized solar cells. Shi et al. [33] fabricated flower-like ZnO on ZnO nanorods without use of any surfactant. Self-supported ZnO photocatalysts in the form of plates were prepared by Yassitepe et al. [24

• ] by the tape casting method. These ZnO plates showed a good photocatalytic activity for azo dyes that depended on their surface area. Shen et al. [34] have shown that depositing ZnO on silica nanoparticles is a simple and effective method to prepare photocatalysts that could degrade 90% methylene blue

Modulation of defect-mediated energy transfer from ZnO nanoparticles for the photocatalytic degradation of bilirubin

• Tanujjal Bora,
• Karthik K. Lakshman,
• Soumik Sarkar,
• Abhinandan Makhal,
• Samim Sardar,
• Samir K. Pal and
• Joydeep Dutta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 714–725, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.81

• vacancies exist in three charged states: singly charged (VO+), doubly charged (VO++) and neutral (VOx). The presence of the oxygen vacancies and other native defects in the ZnO lattice reduces the direct e−/h+ recombination process and thus increases the quantum yield of ZnO nanocrystalline photocatalysts

• an about 70% faster photocatalytic reduction of BR compared to the degradation of BR in 40 minutes when no catalyst was used. The reduction in the BR concentration increased further when annealed ZnO nanoparticles (up to 250 °C) were used as the photocatalysts because of their higher concentrations

Photocatalytic antibacterial performance of TiO₂ and Ag-doped TiO₂ against S. aureus. P. aeruginosa and E. coli

• Kiran Gupta,
• R. P. Singh,
• Ashutosh Pandey and
• Anjana Pandey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 345–351, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.40

• bacterial strains under visible-light irradiation. The TiO2 and Ag-doped TiO2 photocatalysts were synthesized by acid catalyzed sol–gel technique and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV–vis spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL). The XRD pattern revealed

Nanostructure-directed chemical sensing: The IHSAB principle and the dynamics of acid/base-interface interaction

• James L. Gole and
• William Laminack

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 20–31, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.3

• components are separable, they can be combined to provide an enhanced versatility versus a single or mixed metal-oxide surface coating. In concert with the IHSAB principle, this approach leads to an optimized and simpler interface. Treatment of the semiconductors with nanostructured photocatalysts can be

• typical metal-oxide devices. In addition, the appropriate installation of heat sinks allows operation at several hundred degrees centigrade. A developed interface, thus, can operate under conditions that are not amenable to typical metal oxide systems. When the nanoparticles are photocatalysts, the

• the molecular structure and interaction, consistent with the IHSAB principle. This means that the sensitivity of the weaker metal oxides is enhanced by nitridation. Further, this process can be applied to create several potential visible-light-absorbing photocatalysts similar to TiO2−xNx [9][10]. We

Towards atomic resolution in sodium titanate nanotubes using near-edge X-ray-absorption fine-structure spectromicroscopy combined with multichannel multiple-scattering calculations

• Carla Bittencourt,
• Peter Krüger,
• Maureen J. Lagos,
• Xiaoxing Ke,
• Gustaaf Van Tendeloo,
• Chris Ewels,
• Polona Umek and
• Peter Guttmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 789–797, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.88

• that the structure of the layered titanate H2TinO2n+1 better describes the (Na,H)TiNTs [17][18]. Potential applications in lithium-ion batteries, catalyst supports, photocatalysts, and dye-synthesized solar cells have effectively resulted in an increasing interest in titanate nanostuctures [19][20][21

The oriented and patterned growth of fluorescent metal–organic frameworks onto functionalized surfaces

• Jinliang Zhuang,
• Jasmin Friedel and
• Andreas Terfort

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 570–578, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.66

• deposition of MOF films, but also determine the crystallographic orientation within the films [25][29][31]. MOFs based on large π-conjugated molecules are expected to be useful optical materials, e.g., as sensors, photocatalysts, or electroluminescent devices [36][37]. In this paper, we describe a rapid

Mesoporous MgTa₂O₆ thin films with enhanced photocatalytic activity: On the interplay between crystallinity and mesostructure

• Jin-Ming Wu,
• Igor Djerdj,
• Till von Graberg and
• Bernd M. Smarsly

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 123–133, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.13

• considering the turnover frequency of such photocatalysts, the optimized activity of the present nanoarchitectured MgTa2O6 thin film was ca. four times that of analogous anatase TiO2 films with ordered mesopores. Our study demonstrated that high crystallinity and well-developed mesoporosity have to be

• -decomposition activity when compared to the crystalline MgTa2O6 prepared by a solid-state reaction. The high activity is ascribed to the thin walls (2.8 nm) separating the mesopores, as the excited electrons and holes only have to travel a short distance to the surface [11]. The use of photocatalysts in the

• copolymer EO106–PO70–EO106), which forms larger mesopores compared to most other commercially available templates, and to a previously reported type of anatase TiO2 thin film with ordered mesopores, examples of which are widely used as photocatalysts [15][16]. Recently, a further class of block copolymers

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

• gold or platinum located in the vicinity of TiO2, were found to be quite resistant to remote degradation [50][51]. This stability was explained by the high cross section for the reaction between OH radicals and gold relative to that with silica, and was the basis for the development of photocatalysts

Aerosol assisted fabrication of two dimensional ZnO island arrays and honeycomb patterns with identical lattice structures

• Mitsuhiro Numata and
• Yoshihiro Koide

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2010, 1, 71–74, doi:10.3762/bjnano.1.9

• at room temperature. A large-scale, high throughput, size-controlled assembly of ZnO nanostructures would allow the fabrication of a number of conceivable optoelectronic devices, such as dye sensitized solar cells [1][2], electronic sensors [3], UV lasers [4][5], photocatalysts [6], and two

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

• creation in nanostructured photocatalysts could be an attractive solution for visible light photocatalysis. Keywords: defects; nanoparticle; nanorod; photocatalysis; pollutant; ZnO; Introduction Photocatalysis is a light induced catalytic process whereby photogenerated electron-hole pairs in a

• degradation of MB, the removal of the 5–7 nm sized particles after the completion of the photocatalytic reactions is cumbersome. This necessitates the use of supports for the photocatalysts. In this work we have used glass slides as the support for ZnO nanorod photocatalysts. When affixed on to a support, ZnO