Publications by authors named "Valentino Capucci"

TiO is employed as both photocatalytic and structural materials, leading to its applications in external coatings or in interior furnishing devices, including cement mortar, tiles, floorings, and glass supports. The authors have already demonstrated the efficiency of photoactive micro-sized TiO and here its industrial use is reported using the digital printing to coat porcelain grés slabs. Many advantages are immediately evident, namely rapid and precise deposition, no waste of raw materials, thus positively affecting the economy of the process.

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Volatile and semi volatile organic compounds' concentration have dramatically increased in indoor environments in recent years. UV light promotes titanium dioxide, which oxidises various molecules; however, most of the studies report the degradation of a single VOC. Here, we investigate the photo-oxidation of 17 molecules in mixture to have a realistic test of TiO efficacy.

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Pharmaceutical compounds and their metabolites raise worrying questions because of their continuous release and lack of efficient removal by conventional wastewater treatments; therefore, they are being detected in groundwater, surface water and drinking water in increasing concentrations. Paracetamol and aspirin are two of the most commonly used drugs employed as fever reducer, analgesic and anti-inflammatory. They and their metabolites are very often found in river water, so their degradation is necessary in order to render water suitable for human consumption.

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Article Synopsis
  • Micro-sized TiO catalyst was tested for breaking down common drugs like aspirin and paracetamol, focusing on how their chemical structures influence the degradation process.
  • The study investigated how factors such as the types of pollutants, their degradation pathways, and interactions between them are influenced by different water sources.
  • Initially, experiments were conducted with single drug pollutants before progressing to mixtures in both deionized and tap water.
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The most important drawback of the use of TiO2 as photocatalyst is its lack of activity under visible light. To overcome this problem, the surface modification of commercial micro-sized TiO2 by means of high-energy ultrasound (US), employing CuCl2 as precursor molecule to obtain both metallic copper as well as copper oxides species at the TiO2 surface, is here. We have prepared samples with different copper content, in order to evaluate its impact on the photocatalytic performances of the semiconductor, and studied in particular the photodegradation in the gas phase of some volatile organic molecules (VOCs), namely acetone and acetaldehyde.

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