Mitigation of harmful indoor organic vapors using plug-flow unit coated with 2D g-C3N4 and metallic Cu dual-incorporated 1D titania heterostructure

Metallic Copper-Containing Composite Photocatalysts: Fundamental, Materials Design, and Photoredox Applications

Semiconductor photocatalysis has long been regarded as a potential solution to tackle the energy and environmental challenges since the first discovery of water splitting by TiO₂ almost 50 years ago. The past few years have seen a tremendous flurry of research interest in the modification of semiconductors because of their shortcomings in the aspects of solar harvesting, electron-hole pairs separation, and utilization of photogenerated carriers. Among the various strategies, the introduction of metallic copper into the photocatalysis system can not only enhance the absorption of sunlight and the separation efficiency of photogenerated electrons and holes, but also increase the adsorption ability of substrate and the number of active sites, so as to realize the high solar to chemical energy conversion efficiency. This review focuses on the rational design of copper-based composites and their applications in photoredox catalysis. First, the preparation methods of metallic copper-containing composites are discussed. Then, the applications of different types of copper-based composites in the photocatalytic removal of pollutants, splitting of water to hydrogen production, reduction of carbon dioxide, and conversion of organic matter are introduced. Finally, the opportunities and challenges in the design and synthesis of copper-based composites and their applications in the photocatalysis are prospected.

Fabrication of a Cu2O-Au-TiO2 Heterostructure with Improved Photocatalytic Performance for the Abatement of Hazardous Toluene and α-Pinene Vapors

In the current research, a Cu2O-Au-TiO2 heterostructure was fabricated via a step-wise photodeposition route to determine its possible application in the photocatalytic oxidation of hazardous vapors. The results of electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirm the successful fabrication of the Cu2O-Au-TiO2 heterostructure. Strong absorption in the visible region, along with a slight red-shift in the absorption edge, was observed in the UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectrum of Cu2O-Au-TiO2 composite, which implies that the composite can generate a greater number of photoexcited charges necessary for photocatalytic reaction. Toluene and α-pinene, as common gas contaminants in the indoor atmosphere, were employed to assess the photooxidation efficiency of the Cu2O-Au-TiO2 composite. Importantly, photocatalytic activity results indicate that the Cu2O-Au-TiO2 composite showed excellent photodegradation performance compared to pure TiO2 and Cu2O-TiO2 and Au-TiO2, where photocatalytic efficiency was approximately 92.9% and 99.9% for toluene and α-pinene, respectively, under standard daylight illumination. The increased light-harvesting capacity and boosted separation efficiency of electron-hole pairs were mainly accountable for improved degradation performance of the Cu2O-Au-TiO2 composite. In addition, the degradation efficiencies for toluene and α-pinene by the Cu2O-Au-TiO2 composite were also examined under three different light sources: 0.32 W white, blue and violet LEDs. The findings of this work suggested a great promise of effective photooxidation of gas pollutants by the Cu2O-Au-TiO2 composite.

A pie-like structure double-sidedly assembled with ZnO-nanodisks vertically on Cu-nanoplates and its photochemical properties

A novel pie-like structure of vertically stacked ZnO-nanodisks on Cu-nanoplates interlayer is prepared for the first time by a facile synthesis. The photochemical activity of the as-prepared samples was evaluated by the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) under UV-light. Because of the formation of heterojunction and closely-bonded layered structure, the novel nanocomposites can restrain the recombination of charge carriers and have better collection ability of light. The photocatalytic experiments show that the composites are 258% of the catalytic activity of pure ZnO-nanodisks prepared by the same method, and the target pollutant RhB was almost completely degraded (96.5%) within only 10 mins. The novel Cu-nanoplates/ZnO-nanodisks assembled materials with greatly promoted performance are of significant interest for chemical and environmental applications.