The application of photocatalytic sterilization technology for the sterilization of water has been broadly studied in recent years. However, developing photocatalysts with high disinfection efficiency remains an urgent challenge. Tungsten trioxide with coexisting oxygen vacancies and carbon coating (WO 3−x /C) has been successfully synthesized toward the photothermal inactivation of Escherichia coli. Oxygen vacancies and carbon coating bring WO 3−x /C strong absorption in the infrared region and enhance the carrier separation efficiency. As a result, a higher sterilization rate is obtained compared to WO 3 . WO 3−x /C can completely inactivate E. coli under infrared light within 40 min through photothermal synergy process. During the process of inactivating bacteria over WO 3−x /C, E. coli is killed by the destruction of their cell membrane to decrease the activity of enzymes and release the cell contents, which can be ascribed to the efficient generation of reactive oxygen species (O 2•− and • OH) and thermal effect. This work demonstrates a novel approach for engineering efficient and energy-saving catalysts for water sterilization.
Ethylene, a hydrocarbon (C2H4), is one of the widely used products in the chemical industry. A traditional dehydration method of ethanol to ethylene relies strongly on high‐temperature and high‐pressure process with significant energy consumption. In this regard, producing ethylene from bioethanol through dehydration is a promising and sustainable approach, but, this process under mild conditions results in low yields and poor selectivity. Herein, an integrated solar energy catalytic system driven by only sun energy under ambient conditions is established for the first time for bioethanol dehydration using oxygen‐vacancy‐abundant (Ov) WO3 coupled with a thin layer of carbon coating (CL) (WO3−x@C). A record‐high ethylene selectivity of 98.1% is achieved driven by full solar spectrum without any external power, featuring zero pollution emission nature. In this process, Ov acts as a solid acid center, which is the key to initiate the dehydration of ethanol to ethylene via a solar thermal process, while the CL promotes solar thermal synergy, ensuring the high reaction temperature and hot carriers transmission simultaneously. In‐situ infrared spectroscopy and thermodynamic calculations demonstrate a novel proton hydrogen‐mediated catalytic process over WO3−x@C. This work provides a new opportunity of using full‐spectrum solar energy for catalytic generation of value‐added chemicals.
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