Co-assembled MoS-TiO Inverse Opal Photocatalysts for Visible Light-Activated Pharmaceutical Photodegradation.

Heterostructured photocatalytic materials in the form of photonic crystals have been attracting attention for their unique light harvesting ability that can be ideally combined with judicious compositional modifications toward the development of visible light-activated (VLA) photonic catalysts, though practical environmental applications, such as the degradation of pharmaceutical emerging contaminants, have been rarely reported. Herein, heterostructured MoS-TiO inverse opal films are introduced as highly active immobilized photocatalysts for the VLA degradation of tetracycline and ciprofloxacin broad-spectrum antibiotics as well as salicylic acid. A single-step co-assembly method was implemented for the challenging incorporation of MoS nanosheets into the nanocrystalline inverse opal walls.

Heterostructured CoO-TiO Mesoporous/Photonic Crystal Bilayer Films for Enhanced Visible-Light Harvesting and Photocatalysis.

Heterostructured bilayer films, consisting of co-assembled TiO photonic crystals as the bottom layer and a highly performing mesoporous P25 titania as the top layer decorated with CoO nanoclusters, are demonstrated as highly efficient visible-light photocatalysts. Broadband visible-light activation of the bilayer films was implemented by the surface modification of both titania layers with nanoscale clusters of Co oxides relying on the chemisorption of Co acetylacetonate complexes on TiO, followed by post-calcination. Tuning the slow photon regions of the inverse opal supporting layer to the visible-light absorption of surface CoO oxides resulted in significant amplification of salicylic-acid photodegradation under visible and ultraviolet (UV)-visible light (Vis), outperforming benchmark P25 films of higher titania loading.