Photocatalytic Transformation of Organics to Valuable Chemicals - Quo Vadis?

Recent development in photocatalysis is increasingly focused on transforming organic compounds toward producing fine chemicals. Simple, non-selective oxidation reactions (degradation of pollutants) and very demanding solar-to-chemical energy conversion processes (production of solar fuels) face severe economic limitations influenced by still low efficiency and insufficient stability of the systems. Synthesis of fine chemicals, including reductive and oxidative selective transformations, as well as C-C and C-N coupling reactions, can utilise the power of photocatalysis.

Selective and efficient catalytic and photocatalytic oxidation of diphenyl sulphide to sulfoxide and sulfone: the role of hydrogen peroxide and TiO polymorph.

In this paper, we describe the role of anatase and rutile crystal phases on diphenyl sulphide (PhS) catalytic and photocatalytic oxidation. The highly selective and efficient synthesis of diphenyl sulfoxide (PhSO) and diphenyl sulfone (PhSO) at titanium dioxide was demonstrated. PhS oxidation in the presence of hydrogen peroxide at anatase-TiO can take place both as a catalytic and photocatalytic reaction, while at rutile-TiO only photocatalytic oxidation is possible.

Synthesis and Characterization of Size- and Charge-Tunable Silver Nanoparticles for Selective Anticancer and Antibacterial Treatment.

Advances in the research of nanoparticles (NPs) with controlled charge and size are driven by their potential application in the development of novel technologies and innovative therapeutics. This work reports the synthesis, characterization, and comprehensive biological evaluation of AgNPs functionalized by ,,-trimethyl-(11-mercaptoundecyl) ammonium chloride (TMA) and trisodium citrate (TSC). The prepared AgNPs were well characterized in terms of their morphological, spectroscopic and functional properties and biological activities.

Interfacial Charge Transfer Complexes in TiO-Enediol Hybrids Synthesized by Sol-Gel.

Metal oxide-organic hybrid semiconductors exhibit specific properties depending not only on their composition but also on the synthesis procedure, and particularly on the functionalization method, determining the interaction between the two components. Surface adsorption is the most common way to prepare organic-modified metal oxides. Here a simple sol-gel route is described as an alternative, finely controlled strategy to synthesize titanium oxide-based materials containing organic molecules coordinated to the metal.

Near-Infrared-Triggered Nitrogen Fixation over Upconversion Nanoparticles Assembled Carbon Nitride Nanotubes with Nitrogen Vacancies.

Photocatalytic artificial fixation of N to NH occurs over NaYF:Yb,Tm (NYF) upconversion nanoparticles (NPs) decorated carbon nitride nanotubes with nitrogen vacancies (NYF/NV-CNNTs) in water under near-infrared (NIR) light irradiation. NYF NPs with a particle size of ca. 20 nm were uniformly distributed on the surface of NV-CNNTs.

Combined Spectroscopic Methods of Determination of Density of Electronic States: Comparative Analysis of Diffuse Reflectance Spectroelectrochemistry and Reversed Double-Beam Photoacoustic Spectroscopy.

The diffuse reflectance spectroelectrochemistry (SE-DRS) and reversed double-beam photoacoustic spectroscopy (RDB-PAS) provide unique, complementary information on the density of electronic states (DOS) in the vicinity of the conduction band bottom. The measurements are performed under quite different conditions, representing the solid/liquid and solid/gas interfaces in SE-DRS and RDB-PAS, respectively. DOS profiles obtained from both types of measurements can be considered as unique "fingerprints" of the tested materials.

Photodynamic Inactivation of Bacteria with Porphyrin Derivatives: Effect of Charge, Lipophilicity, ROS Generation, and Cellular Uptake on Their Biological Activity In Vitro.

Resistance of microorganisms to antibiotics has led to research on various therapeutic strategies with different mechanisms of action, including photodynamic inactivation (PDI). In this work, we evaluated a cationic, neutral, and anionic -tetraphenylporphyrin derivative's ability to inactivate the Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria in a planktonic suspension under blue light irradiation. The spectroscopic, physicochemical, redox properties, as well as reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation capacity by a set of photosensitizers varying in lipophilicity were investigated.

Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution by co-catalyst-free TiO/C bulk heterostructures synthesized under mild conditions.

Hydrogen production by photocatalytic water splitting is one of the most promising sustainable routes to store solar energy in the form of chemical bonds. To obtain significant H evolution rates (HERs) a variety of defective TiO catalysts were synthesized by means of procedures generally requiring highly energy-consuming treatments, hydrogenation. Even if a complete understanding of the relationship between defects, electronic structure and catalytic active sites is far from being achieved, the band gap narrowing and Ti-self-doping have been considered essential to date.

Novel and effective synthesis protocol of AgNPs functionalized using L-cysteine as a potential drug carrier.

In this study, the protocol of a single-step L-cysteine functionalized silver nanoparticle synthesis was described. Particle size distribution was determined. The crystallinity and chemical properties were investigated using XRD, HR-TEM, and XPS methods.