Photocatalysis in water environments using artificial and solar light

Surface CuO, Bi2O3, and CeO2 Species Supported in TiO2-Anatase: Study of Interface Effects in Toluene Photodegradation Quantum Efficiency

“…53 This observable measures the average distance or path the light goes through the solid, as mathematically described in Equation 3.…”

“…In spite of it, more active materials are always sough and, particularly, the development of efficient catalysts for UV and visible wavelength lights simultaneously appears of primer importance in order to allow the fruitful use of solar light as a green energy source in photocatalytic processes. [1][2][3][4][5] An enhanced performance of anatase under UV and visible light has been pursued within a variety of approaches. Among the most successful ways, we can highlight the use of surface sensitizers consisting on semiconductor oxides with significant absorption capability in the visible range.…”

“…47 As described in recent works, this requires the accurate measurement of the catalytic surface illuminated and thus catalytically active under illumination, the light handling properties of the whole (reactor+catalyst) system to calculate the net radiation flow at the catalyst´ surface, as well as the catalytic properties including both activity and selectivity to obtain the number of reacting molecules as well as the number of charge species (and in turn photons) involved in the reaction. 3,[48][49][50][51][52][53] The whole procedure demands thus for a careful physico-chemical characterization of the materials as well as the careful analysis of their photochemical response under illumination conditions. In this contribution we will attempt to carry out such study in these three CuO-TiO2, CeO2-TiO2, and Bi2O3-TiO2 systems as a function of the surface sensitizer concentration.…”

Photocatalytic degradation of chlorophenols in soil washing wastes containing Brij 35. Correlation between the degradation kinetics and the pollutants–micelle binding

“…The fundamental aspects of the photocatalysis are well known (Ollis et al 1989;Pichat et al 1993;Bahnemann et al 1994;Hoffmann et al 1995;Alfano et al 2000;Malato et al 2002) and will be not remembered here. The influence of surfactants on these processes, largely due to their tendency to adsorb onto the semiconductor, has been recognized and must be carefully considered.…”

“…Among the possible chemical treatments, heterogeneous photocatalysis is an advanced oxidation method largely used in the past years for the effective degradation of a wide variety of organic pollutants present in aqueous wastes. One of the main advantages of this process is that it allows to obtain the effective decomposition and in most cases the complete mineralization of a great variety of substrates (Ollis et al 1989;Pichat et al 1993;Bahnemann et al 1994;Hoffmann et al 1995;Alfano et al 2000;Malato et al 2002).…”