Facile Synthesis of Hybridized Mesoporous Au@TiO₂/SnO₂as Efficient Photocatalyst and Selective VOC Sensor

Abstract

Considering the novelty of heterojunction formation in sunlight photocatalysis, dahlia flower resembling Au loaded TiO2/SnO2 nanocomposite was synthesized using facile hydrothermal method to improve the degradation rate of waste water pollutants. The intrinsic high surface area coupled with unique heterojunction formation causes Au@TiO2/SnO2 to exhibit excellent photocatalytic activity towards the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) dye under sunlight irradiation. Under the optimized conditions of catalyst dosage (0.3 g/L), dye concentration (100 ppm) and pH (10), 99.2 % of the RhB aqueous solution was degraded in 35 min of illumination time. Moreover, the resulting Au@TiO2/SnO2 nanohybrid unveiled excellent sensing response (43) towards acetone gas (100 ppm) while detecting a variety of common volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including methanol, benzyl alcohol and isopropanol at 220 °C. Thus, the enhanced photocatalytic activity for degrading organic pollutants under sunlight irradiation and excellent sensing properties at relatively lower working temperature, make this porous nanohybrid a promising candidate for environmental monitoring applications.

Retracted: Ordered Mesoporous Ag–ZnO@g‐CN Nanohybrid as Highly Efficient Bifunctional Sensing Material

“…The response (time for humidification) and recovery time (time for desiccation) are very important features of a sensor and generally measured as the time taken to achieve ≈90% of impedance change during the process of adsorption and desorption, respectively . In Figure e, at each %RH regime, the average response time taken during the process of adsorption was 5.1 s while the average recovery time was 2 s. On comparing the response/recovery time performances of the materials in previously published works in Table ST2 (Supporting Information), our material possess better response/recovery times than conventional %RH sensors under the similar test conditions.…”

“…The precise detection of relative humidity (%RH) in meteorology, weather forecasting, libraries, electronics, food processing, packaging, automobile industry, paper and textile technology, clinical diagnosis through breath monitoring, and agricultural field is continuously endorsing the interest in realizing promising %RH sensors . While dealing with the noninvasive detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in clinical diagnosis applications through breath monitoring, there always remains a challenge to distinctively detect specific biomarker (acetone for diabetes, ethanol for drunken driving, 1‐butanol for skin cancer, formaldehyde for lung cancer, hydrogen sulfide for halitosis, and trimethylamine for trimethylaminuria) by reducing cross sensitivity to high humid contents of human breath (≈90%RH) . Researchers have been targeting highly efficient (excellent response, good linearity, short response/recovery, and small hysteresis) multifunctional sensors utilizing numerous scientific and technological methods and exploring novel mesoporous materials with diverse morphologies .…”

Poly (Lactic Acid) Grafting of TiO2Nanoparticles : A Shift in Dye Degradation Performance of TiO2from UV to Solar Light

“…A number of modifications of TiO 2 , have been reported in literature to enhance its activity as a photocatalyst in the visible region ,. These include surface dye sensitization, doping of TiO 2 nanoparticles with metals, non‐metal ions, noble metals, metallic oxides, deposition of TiO 2 on carbon nanotubes and synthesis of polymer/TiO 2 nanocomposites . In the last case, most of the studies are limited to usage of conducting polymers such as polypyrrole, polyaniline,, P3HT etc.…”

Mesoporous Spherical TiO2 with Outstanding Photocatalysis under Visible Light

“…The morphologies structure has a significant effect on the photocatalytic performance. Mesoporous spherical structure TiO 2 has higher specific surface area, and can effectively promote the adsorption of materials on the surface of TiO 2 and the photogenerated electrons and holes transmission in the channel, greatly improving the photocatalytic efficiency …”