Gels in Heterogeneous Photocatalysis: Past, Present, and Future.

Photocatalysis has attracted more and more attention as a possible solution to environmental, water, and energy crises. Although some photocatalytic materials have already proven to perform well, there are still some problems that should be solved for the broad commercialization of photocatalysis-based technologies. Among them, cheap and easy recycling, as well as stability issues, should be addressed.

The Impact of Side-Selective Laser Tailoring of Titania Nanotubes on Changes in Photoelectrocatalytic Activity.

Over the last few decades, titanium(IV) oxide-based materials have gained particular attention due to their stability, corrosion resistance, photocatalytic activity under UV light, and possibilities for modification. Among various structures, TiO nanotubes (NTs) grown on Ti foil or glass substrates and obtained through a simple anodization process are widely used as photocatalysts or photoanodes. During the anodization process, the geometry of the nanotubes (length, distribution, diameter, wall thickness, etc.

Significance of the presence of antibiotics on the microbial consortium in wastewater - The case of nitrofurantoin and furazolidone.

Antibiotics in wastewater leads to migration of pollutants and disrupts natural processes of mineralization of organic matter. In order to understand the mechanism of this, research was undertaken on the influence of nitrofurantoin (NFT) and furazolidone (FZD), on the behaviour of a consortium of microorganisms present in a model wastewater in a bioreactor. Our study confirmed biodegradation of the antibiotics by the microbial consortium, with the degradation efficiency within 10 days of 65% for FZD, but only 20% for NFT.

Modification of structured bio‑carbon derived from spongin-based scaffolds with nickel compounds to produce a functional catalyst for reduction and oxidation reactions: Potential for use in environmental protection.

Three different 3D fibrous-like NiO/Ni(OH)/Ni‑carbonized spongin-based materials were prepared via a simple sorption-reduction method. Depending on the support used, the catalysts were composed of carbon, nickel oxide, nickel hydroxide and zero-valent nickel, with the surface content of the nickel-containing phase in the range 15.2-26.

Nitrofurazone Removal from Water Enhanced by Coupling Photocatalysis and Biodegradation.

(1) Background: Environmental contamination with antibiotics is particularly serious because the usual methods used in wastewater treatment plants turn out to be insufficient or ineffective. An interesting idea is to support natural biodegradation processes with physicochemical methods as well as with bioaugmentation with efficient microbial degraders. Hence, the aim of our study is evaluation of the effectiveness of different methods of nitrofurazone (NFZ) degradation: photolysis and photodegradation in the presence of two photocatalysts, the commercial TiO-P25 and a self-obtained FeO@SiO/TiO magnetic photocatalyst.

Preparation and Characterization of Defective TiO. The Effect of the Reaction Environment on Titanium Vacancies Formation.

Among various methods of improving visible light activity of titanium(IV) oxide, the formation of defects and vacancies (both oxygen and titanium) in the crystal structure of TiO is an easy and relatively cheap alternative to improve the photocatalytic activity. In the presented work, visible light active defective TiO was obtained by the hydrothermal reaction in the presence of three different oxidizing agents: HIO, HO, and HNO. Further study on the effect of used oxidant and calcination temperature on the physicochemical and photocatalytic properties of defective TiO was performed.

Mono- and bimetallic (Pt/Cu) titanium(IV) oxide photocatalysts. Physicochemical and photocatalytic data of magnetic nanocomposites' shell.

Surface modification of titania with noble and semi-noble metals resulted in significant enhancement of photocatalytic activity. Presented data, showing the photocatalytic properties of TiO-M (where M is Pt and/or Cu) photocatalysts were further used as FeO@SiO/TiO-M magnetic nanocomposites shells in "Mono- and bimetallic (Pt/Cu) titanium(IV) oxide core-shell photocatalysts with Vis light activity and magnetic separability" [1]. Platinum and copper were photodeposited on four different titania matrices (commercial and self-obtained ones).

Pseudo-superparamagnetic behaviour of barium hexaferrite particles.

The effect of hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) addition on the crystal structure, morphology, and magnetic properties of co-precipitated hexagonal barium ferrite was investigated. For a fixed amount of surfactant, different Fe concentrations and Fe/Ba ratios were used to optimize the formation of single-phase barium ferrite particles. The results indicated that the obtained ferrite particles exhibited coercivity changes similar to those of superparamagnetic particles with larger than theoretically calculated particle sizes.

Magnetic semiconductor photocatalysts for the degradation of recalcitrant chemicals from flow back water.

In the present study treatability of persistent organic compounds from the flow back water after hydrauling fracturing was investigated. The combination of TiO photocatalyst and magnetic oxide nanoparticles enhance the separation and recoverable property of nanosized TiO photocatalyst. FeO/TiO and FeO@SiO/TiO nanocomposites were prepared by heteroagglomeration.