Fenvalerate is a common Pyrethroid insecticide exits stably in water and soil. This study subjected to enhance the degradation of fenvalerate (in the form of aqueous emulsion of a commercial formulation) using UV/ozone process. Experiment results indicated that fenvalerate was decomposed rapidly under UV irradiation (99% within 10 minutes). Degradation yield also showed an increase when ozone was applied. UV/ozone degradation rates of fenvalerate followed first-order kinetics. In alkaline medium, there was a slight increase in yield. Sodium nitrate acted as a photo-sensitizer for UV irradiation process so it helped to increase reaction rate at an optimum concentration of 2.5 mM. Moreover, some degradation products were identified and tentatively assigned by GC-MS.

Finding out robust active and sustainable catalyst towards alcohol electro-oxidation reaction is major challenges for large-scale commercialization of direct alcohol fuel cells. Herein, a robust Pt nanowires (NWs)/Ti0.7W0.3O2 electrocatalyst, as the coherency of using non-carbon catalyst support and controlling the morphology and structure of the Pt nanocatalyst, was fabricated via an effortless chemical reduction reaction approach at room temperature without using surfactant/stabilizers or template to assemble an anodic electrocatalyst towards methanol electro-oxidation reaction (MOR) and ethanol electro-oxidation reaction (EOR). These observational results demonstrated that the Pt NWs/Ti0.7W0.3O2 electrocatalyst is an intriguing anodic electrocatalyst, which can alter the state-of-the-art Pt NPs/C catalyst. Compared with the conventional Pt NPs/C electrocatalyst, the Pt NWs/Ti0.7W0.3O2 electrocatalyst exhibited the lower onset potential (~0.1 V for MOR and ~0.2 for EOR), higher mass activity (~355.29 mA/mgPt for MOR and ~325.01 mA/mgPt for EOR) and much greater durability. The outperformance of the Pt NWs/Ti0.7W0.3O2 electrocatalyst is ascribable to the merits of the anisotropic one-dimensional Pt nanostructure and the mesoporous Ti0.7W0.3O2 support along with the synergistic effects between the Ti0.7W0.3O2 support and the Pt nanocatalyst. Furthermore, this approach may provide a promising catalytic platform for fuel cell technology and a variety of applications.

To overcome the disadvantages of commercial carbonaceous catalysts in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), novel Pt/Ti 1ex Ir x O 2 catalysts are fabricated in this study. Simultaneously, the influence of the Ir composition in the support on the electrocatalytic activities and physicochemical properties of Pt/Ti 1ex Ir x O 2 catalysts is also evaluated. Ti 1ex Ir x O 2 materials with the tunable Ir composition (x ¼ 0.1, 0.2, 0.3) synthesized via a simple and green hydrothermal route exhibited much higher electrical conductivity and surface area than the undoped TiO 2 . Furthermore, the well-distributed Pt nanoparticles (NPs) with small sizes (~3 nm) over supports were obtained by using a modified chemical reduction route. Electrochemical results revealed that a series of 20 wt. % Pt/Ti 1ex Ir x O 2 catalysts exhibited superior durability and electrochemical activity toward the methanol oxidation reaction to the commercial 20 wt. % Pt/C (E-TEK) catalyst. According to these results, Ti 1ex Ir x O 2 materials seem to be very promising as a stable catalyst support in the harsh medium of DMFCs.