Developments in Titanium-Based Alkali and Alkaline Earth Metal Oxide Catalysts for Sustainable Biodiesel Production: A Review.

Biodiesel represents a biodegradable, environmentally friendly, and renewable alternative to fossil fuels. Despite more than three decades of research, significant obstacles still hinder the widespread production of biodiesel. This current review elucidates both the potential and the existing challenges associated with homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts in catalyzing biodiesel production, with a particular focus on alkali analogues, alkaline earth metal oxides, and titania-based catalysts.

Observation of inherited plasmonic properties of TiN in titanium oxynitride (TiON) for solar-drive photocatalytic applications.

This study demonstrates the synthesis of titanium oxynitride (TiON) via a controlled step-annealing of commercial titanium nitride (TiN) powders under normal ambience. The structure of the formed TiON system is confirmed via XRD, Rietveld refinements, XPS, Raman, and HRTEM analysis. A distinct plasmonic band corresponding to TiN is observed in the absorption spectrum of TiON, indicating that the surface plasmonic resonance (SPR) property of TiN is being inherited in the resulting TiON system.