Surface species structure and activity in NO decomposition of an anatase-supported V–O–Mo catalyst

Efficient visible-light photocatalytic oxidation of gaseous NO with graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) activated by the alkaline hydrothermal treatment and mechanism analysis

In this paper, an enhanced visible-light photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) of NO (∼ 400 ppm) in the presence of the graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) treated by the alkaline hydrothermal treatment is evaluated. Various g-C3N4 samples were treated in different concentrations of NaOH solutions and the sample treated in 0.12 mol L(-1) of NaOH solution possesses the largest BET specific surface area as well as the optimal ability of the PCO of NO. UV-vis diffuse reflection spectra (DRS) and photoluminescence (PL) spectra were also conducted, and the highly improved photocatalytic performance is ascribed to the large specific surface area and high pore volume, which provides more adsorption and active sites, the wide visible-light adsorption edge and the narrow band gap, which is favorable for visible-light activation, as well as the decreased recombination rate of photo-generated electrons and holes, which could contribute to the production of active species. Fluorescence spectra and a trapping experiment were conducted to further the mechanism analysis of the PCO of NO, illustrating that superoxide radicals (O2(-)) play the dominant role among active species in the PCO of NO.

The Synthesis of α-MoO₃ by Ethylene Glycol

This study investigated the use of ethylene glycol to form α-MoO₃ (molybdenum trioxide) from ammonium molybdate tetrahydrate at various sintering temperatures for 1 h. During the sintering process, the morphologies of the constituents were observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used to explain the reaction process. In this work, the results obtained using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XRD) demonstrated that, when the molybdenum trioxide powder was treated thermally at 300 °C, the material exhibited crystallinity. The peaks were indexed to correspond with the (110), (040), (021), (111), and (060) crystallographic planes, and the lattice parameters of a, b, and c were about 3.961, 13.876, and 3.969 Å. Using these observations, we confirmed that orthorhombic α-MoO₃ was formed for sintering temperatures from 300 to 700 °C. Pattern images were obtained by the selected area electron diffraction pattern (SAED) technique, and the d distance of the high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) images were almost 0.39 and 0.36 nm, and the Mo 3d_5/2, Mo 3d_3/2, and O 1s of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were located at 233.76, 237.03, and 532.19 eV, which also demonstrated that α-MoO₃ powder had been synthesized.