Nitrogen doped sublimed carbon as non-noble metal catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction

Ultrasound accelerated near-edge functionalized heterogeneous graphene oxide sonocatalyst for surface optical bandwidth efficacy and in situ sonothermocatalysis

Ultrasound-accelerated optically active heterogeneous catalyst and sonochemical time driven thermodynamic dye catalysis.

Environmentally benign synthesis of Co3O4-SnO2 heteronanorods with efficient photocatalytic performance activated by visible light

One-dimensional (1D) heterostructured photocatalysts with controllable texture properties and compositions have attracted increasing interest owing to their unique optical, structural, and electronic advantages. Herein, 1D Co₃O₄-SnO₂ heteronanorods were rationally designed and synthesized through a facile solution-based approach. Benefiting from both of their heterostructural and compositional characteristics, the resulting Co₃O₄-SnO₂ heteronanorods exhibit high photocatalytic performance for the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible-light irridation. In particular, the photocatalyst with a Co₃O₄/SnO₂ mass ratio of 1:1 provides the best photocatalytic performance, which can degrade 90% RhB within 120 min. Besides, several reaction parameters affecting RhB degradation, such as churning time, calcination temperature and pH value, are investigated in detail. The enhanced photocatalytic activity can be attributed to the broadening of absorption spectrum to visible-light regions and the efficient charge separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs due to the formed p-n heterojunctions. The strategy reported here can be able to expand to fabricate other heterostructured photocatalysts for practical applications in the fields of photocatalysis, water splitting, and solar cells.

A solar responsive photocatalytic fuel cell with the membrane electrode assembly design for simultaneous wastewater treatment and electricity generation

In this work, a photocatalytic fuel cell (PFC) with membrane electrode assembly (MEA) structure was designed for simultaneous organic compounds degradation and electricity generation. For the photoanode, the TiO₂ with the quantum-dot sensitization by CdS-ZnS was used to broaden the absorption spectrum to visible light. For the cathode, an air-breathing mode was utilized to enhance the oxygen transport. The performance of the developed PFC was evaluated under different operation conditions, including the light intensity, liquid flow rate, concentrations of electrolyte and organics. Results indicated that the designed PFC could yield good performance. The increase of the light intensity and electrolyte concentration could improve the PFC performance. It is also found that when the flow rate was increased, the PFC performance dropped down in the testing range. Too high organics concentration led to the decrease of the PFC performance.

Influence of nitrogen precursors on the structure, composition, and oxygen reduction reaction performance of dual heteroatom doped carbon nanohorns

The different N-sources used in the synthesis would cause different ways the doped N atoms interact with B or P dopants, and result in the enhanced or declined electrocatalytic activity of dual-doped carbon nanohorns in oxygen reduction reaction.