Photothermal Nanoconfinement Reactor: Boosting Chemical Reactivity with Locally High Temperature in a Confined Space

Abstract

A photothermal nanoconfinement reactor (PNCR) system is proposed and demonstrated by using hollow carbon nanospheres (HCNs) to enhance the performance of the chemical reaction. Under light irradiation, the local temperature of the HCN inner void space was much higher than the bulk solution temperature because the confined space concentrates heat and inhibits heat loss. Using the temperature‐sensitive model reaction, peroxydisulfate (PDS) activation to oxidize micropollutant, it is shown that the degradation rate of sulfamethoxazole in the PNCR system is 7.1 times of that without nanoconfinement. It is further discovered that the high‐quality local heat inside the nanoconfined space shifted the model reaction from an otherwise non‐radical pathway to a radical‐based pathway. This work provides an interesting strategy to produce a locally high temperature, which has a wide range of applications to energy and environmental fields.

Directional and Ultrafast Charge Transfer in Oxygen‐Vacancy‐Rich ZnO@Single‐Atom Cobalt Core‐Shell Junction for Photo‐Fenton‐Like Reaction

“…More importantly, the ZnO@SA-Co-CN + PMS + Vis system was proven to be efficient for the abatement of tetrabromobisphenol A, bisphenol A, sulfisoxazole and metronidazole (Figure 3E and * OH, and isopropanol (IPA), nitro blue tetrazolium (NBT), β-carotene and methyl phenyl sulfoxide (PMSO) were applied for quenching * OH, O 2 *À , 1 O 2 and high-valent Co species, respectively. [45] As shown in to SMX oxidation. In addition, β-carotene showed almost no impact on SMX degradation, implying that 1 O 2 may not involve in SMX oxidation.…”

“…Production of ROS in the ZnO@SA‐Co‐CN+PMS+Vis system was probed by radical‐quenching experiments. Methanol (MeOH) is able to quench SO 4 ⋅ − and ⋅OH, and isopropanol (IPA), nitro blue tetrazolium (NBT), β‐carotene and methyl phenyl sulfoxide (PMSO) were applied for quenching ⋅OH, O 2 ⋅ − , 1 O 2 and high‐valent Co species, respectively [45] . As shown in Figure 3F, PMSO and NBT shows negligible impact on SMX degradation, which suggests that high‐valent Co and O 2 ⋅ − played insignificant roles in SMX oxidation.…”

Directional and Ultrafast Charge Transfer in Oxygen‐Vacancy‐Rich ZnO@Single‐Atom Cobalt Core‐Shell Junction for Photo‐Fenton‐Like Reaction

“…Methanol (MeOH) is able to quench SO 4 *À and * OH, and isopropanol (IPA), nitro blue tetrazolium (NBT), β-carotene and methyl phenyl sulfoxide (PMSO) were applied for quenching * OH, O 2 *À , 1 O 2 and high-valent Co species, respectively. [45] As shown in to SMX oxidation. In addition, β-carotene showed almost no impact on SMX degradation, implying that 1 O 2 may not involve in SMX oxidation.…”

Super‐Photothermal Effect‐Mediated Fast Reaction Kinetic in S‐Scheme Organic/Inorganic Heterojunction Hollow Spheres Toward Optimized Photocatalytic Performance

“…Although it is difficult to raise the temperature of a large amount of water on the outside of the hollow nanospheres, only a small amount of water needs to be heated on the inside of the hollow spheres, so the temperature of the internal space of the HCN@ZIS reactor should be much higher than the temperature of the external solution. [36,59] Unfortunately, the size of a single HCN@ZIS is only a few hundred nanometers, so it is difficult to directly measure the temperature of its internal space. Therefore, a 2D finite element model is developed to study the temperature change behavior of the HCN@ZIS nanoreactor from inside to outside under irradiation, and the natural convective heat transfer in hollow nanospheres in solution is described using the non-isothermal flow multi-physics field coupling module in COMSOL multiphysics software.…”

“…[28][29][30][31][32][33][34] In a typical photothermal process, the heat generated on the surface of the photothermal material will quickly diffuse into the surrounding environment driven by a temperature gradient, causing a loss of energy. [35][36][37] Fortunately, the development of nanoconfinement reactors in recent years has provided an opportunity to address the issue of heat dissipation from the catalyst surface. Hollow nanoreactors have been shown to facilitate catalytic reactions by confining the active species or reactant molecules to a unique microenvironment, increase reaction rates by influencing the enrichment and diffusion of reactants.…”