Publications by authors named "Peter R Makgwane"

Article Synopsis
  • Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts undergo structural and electronic changes during use, known as surface reconstruction, which enhances their catalytic activity.
  • This study introduces a new method called heterostructure engineering, demonstrating that the MnCo carbonate hydroxide (MnCo─CH)@CoN configuration facilitates faster and more effective surface reconstruction compared to CoN alone.
  • After reconstruction, the MnCo─CH@CoN catalyst shows improved performance with a low overpotential of 257 mV at 10 mA cm, outperforming individual CoN's 379 mV, highlighting the benefits of engineered heterostructures.
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Article Synopsis
  • Heterostructured nanomaterials, particularly nickel sulfides, show great promise for environmental applications like water purification and pollutant monitoring due to their desirable properties such as stability and cost-effectiveness.
  • The review focuses on the advancement of nickel sulfide-based photocatalysts, detailing their synthesis, structural properties, and modifications that enhance their effectiveness in degrading organic contaminants in water.
  • The findings suggest that these nickel sulfide photocatalysts can achieve degradation efficiencies comparable to more expensive noble-metal options, and the review also discusses future possibilities for their use in sustainable environmental remediation.
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Herein, we report the enhanced photocatalytic activity of heterostructured CeO nanocatalysts interfaced with Cu, Co, Ni, Mn, and Fe metal oxides. The CeO catalysts exhibited an enhanced red shift in the visible-light response compared to CeO. This improved absorption range effectively suppressed electron (e)/hole (h) recombination by forming localized energy bands associated with defect oxygen vacancies ( ) induced by the M ions incorporated in CeO.

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This study report on the synthesis of spinel CuFeO nanostructures by surfactant-assisted method. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), laser Raman, transition electron microscope (TEM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), hydrogen temperature programmed reduction (H-TPR), and Brunauer-Teller-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area techniques. CuFeO was active for pinene oxidation using tertiary butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) to pinene oxide, verbenol, and verbenone aroma oxygenates.

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The development of controlled synthesis protocols of nanostructured materials with tailored particle size and shape has been a significant research area in nanoscience and nanotechnology. Much innovative research efforts had been focused on finding suitable chemical reagents and synthetic methodologies that offer opportunities to produce the desired structure-function controlled nanomaterials. On the other hand, the reactor equipment for the synthesis of these tailored nanomaterials is of prime importance not only at laboratory-scale but also with view of up-scaling the synthetic processes into large-scale productions.

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The promotional effect of nanosized Ru, Fe, Au, and Mn particles on VOHPO4 x 0.5H2O (VHP) catalytic properties was investigated in benzene hydroxylation reaction using hydrogen hydroperoxide (H2O2) as oxidant. Catalytic results indicated a profound effect of the nanoparticle dopants on VHP catalyst activity and products distribution.

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A porous layer open tubular (PLOT) silica gel column was used together with subcritical CO2 as the mobile phase to effect the group separation of polar oxygenated compounds. Aliphatic and aromatic compounds were shown to elute together. This group was followed by ethers and aldehydes, which were separated from compounds containing an alcohol functional group.

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