Photoactivity of TiO2/CdS and SiO2/CdS hybrid nanostructured systems in the partial oxidation of ethanol under irradiation with visible light

Abstract

The activity of hybrid nanostructured core-shell photocatalysts based on cadmium sulfide, tita nium dioxide, and silicon dioxide has been investigated in the partial oxidation of ethanol under irradiation with visible light. The SiO 2 /CdS and TiO 2 /CdS photocatalysts have been synthesized by the sol-gel method and have been characterized by a variety of physicochemical methods, including X ray diffraction, transmis sion electron microscopy, X ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier trans form spectroscopy. The synthesized TiO 2 /CdS samples exhibit a high activity in the partial photocatalytic oxidation of ethanol to acetaldehyde under irradiation with visible light (λ > 420 nm) in a batch reactor. Their high activity can be due to heterojunctions occurring between cadmium sulfide and titanium dioxide nano particles and causing the separation of photogenerated charges.

Nanostructured Titanium Dioxide (NS-TiO2)

“…Nanostructured titanium dioxide (NS-TiO 2 ) is a non-toxic, environmentally friendly, inexpensive, and efficient functional material with a broad range of applications [8][9][10][11]. In the past decade, nanostructured TiO 2 , which can have either a stoichiometric or nonstoichiometric composition, has attracted increasing attention from researchers around the world as a promising highly efficient photocatalyst for the synthesis of organic compounds that meets the principles of green chemistry [12][13][14][15][16][17]. Today, nano-structured materials are an important area of research due to their several unique characteristic features.…”

On an adsorption/photocatalytic performance of nanotubular Mg3Si2O5(OH)4/TiO2 composite

“…In turn, TiO 2 is a well-known and widely used photocatalysis for water purification and splitting [33][34][35]. Its photocatalytic activity can be further enhanced by creating various types of composite materials with metals [12,34], sulfides [36][37][38][39], oxides and clays [40][41][42], or by varying the shape of TiO 2 nanoparticles [43][44][45]. In our present study, we used molecular layer deposition technique [46,47] with subsequent hydrolysis to obtain TiO 2 phase on Mg 3 Si 2 O 5 (OH) 4 nanotubes.…”