Gold coated iron oxide core shell nanostructures for oxidation of indoles and synthesis of uracil-derived spirooxindoles

Encapsulation of iron oxide (Fe3O4) based nanoparticles (NPs) with Au NPs hold promising scope for catalysis, which overcomes the hindrance of the inherent hydrophilic surface of iron species and facilitates...

CNT-ZnO Core-Shell Photoanodes for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Solar-driven water splitting is a promising route toward clean H2 energy and the photoelectrochemical approach attracts a strong interest. The oxygen evolution reaction is widely accepted as the performance limiting stage in this technology, which emphasizes the need of innovative anode materials. Metal oxide semiconductors are relevant in this respect owing to their cost-effectiveness and broad availability. The combination of chemical vapor deposition and atomic layer deposition was implemented in this study for the synthesis of randomly oriented CNT-ZnO core-shell nanostructures forming an adhering porous coating. Relative to a directly coated ZnO on Si, the porous structure enables a high interface area with the electrolyte and a resulting 458% increase of the photocurrent density under simulated solar light irradiation. The photoelectrochemical characterization correlates this performance to the effective electrons withdrawing along the carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and the resulting decrease of the onset potential. In terms of durability, the CNT-ZnO core–shell structure features an enhanced photo-corrosion stability for 8 h under illumination and with a voltage bias.

(Plasmonic gold core)@(ultrathin ruthenium shell) nanostructures as antenna-reactor photocatalysts toward nitrogen photofixation

Ruthenium (Ru) is known as the optimal metal catalyst for ammonia (NH3) synthesis, but the poor light-harvesting capability restricts its application in photocatalysis. Herein, we construct an antenna-reactor nanostructure through...

Facile Synthesis Bi2Te3 Based Nanocomposites: Strategies for Enhancing Charge Carrier Separation to Improve Photocatalytic Activity

Varying structure Bi2Te3-based nanocomposite powders including pure Bi2Te3, Bi2Te3/Bi core−shell, and Bi2Te3/AgBiTe2 heterostructure were synthesized by hydrothermal synthesis using Bi2S3 as the template and hydrazine as the reductant. Successful realization of Bi2Te3-based nanostructures were concluded from XRD, FESEM, and TEM. In this work, the improvement in the performance of the rhodamine B (RhB) decomposition efficiency under visible light was discussed. The Bi2Te3/AgBiTe2 heterostructures revealed propitious photocatalytic performance ca. 90% after 60 min. The performance was over Bi2Te3/Bi core-shell nanostructures (ca. 40%) and more, exceeding pure Bi2Te3 (ca. 5%). The reason could be scrutinized in terms of the heterojunction structure, improving the interfacial contact between Bi2Te3 and AgBiTe2 and enabling retardation in the recombination rate of the photogenerated charge carriers. A credible mechanism of the charge transfer process in the Bi2Te3/AgBiTe2 heterostructures for the decomposition of an aqueous solution of RhB was also explicated. In addition, this work also investigated the stability and recyclability of a Bi2Te3/AgBiTe2 heterojunction nanostructure photocatalyst. In addition, this paper anticipates that the results possess broad potential in the photocatalysis field for the design of a visible light functional and reusable heterojunction nanostructure photocatalyst.