Sodium Dodecyl Benzene Sulfonate-assisted Synthesis and Natural Sunlight Photocatalytic Activity of La Bismuthate Nanorods

Background: Removal of the organic pollutants using the photo-catalysts by the photocatalytic treatment process under natural sunlight irradiation has attracted great attention owing to the complete destruction of the organic pollutants. The La bismuthate nanorods possess good photocatalytic performance for the removal of the methylene orange (MO) under the sunlight irradiation. Objective: The aim is to synthesize La bismuthate nanorods by hydrothermal method and research the photocatalytic performance of the La bismuthate nanorods for MO degradation under sunlight irradiation. Methods: La bismuthate nanorods have been synthesized by a simple sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS)-assisted hydrothermal method using sodium bismuthate and La acetate as the starting materials. The obtained La bismuthate products were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy and solid UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectrum. Results: With different SDBS concentration, hydrothermal temperature and reaction time, different morphologies of the La bismuthate products were obtained. XRD analysis shows that the La bismuthate nanorods obtained from 180°C for 24 h with 5wt.% SDBS are composed of orthorhombic La1.08Bi0.92O3.03 phase. Electron microscopy observations show that the La bismuthate nanorods with flat tips have the length of longer than 10 μm and diameter of about 20-100 nm, respectively. The morphology and structure of the products are closely related to the SDBS concentration, hydrothermal temperature and reaction time. Solid UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectrum shows that the band gap of the La bismuthate nanorods is 2.37 eV. The La bismuthate nanorods show good photocatalytic performance for the degradation of MO under the sunlight irradiation. MO solution with the concentration of 10 mg.L-1 can be totally removed by 10 mg La bismuthate nanorods in 10 mL MO aqueous solution under sunlight irradiation for 6 h. Conclusion: The photocatalytic performance for the removal of MO is dependent on the sunlight irradiation time and dosage of the La bismuthate nanorods. The La bismuthate nanorods exhibit great potential for the removal of organic pollutants.

Facile in-situ growth of Ag/TiO2 nanoparticles on polydopamine modified bamboo with excellent mildew-proofing

Bamboo with the outstanding properties, such as good mechanical strength, fast growth rate and low growth cost, is considered as one of utilitarian structural nature materials. But bamboo is easy to get mildewed resulting in disfiguration and fungi corrosion. In this work, a facile method was developed to improve the mildew-proofing capability of bamboo. Mussel-inspired polydopamine (PDA) with biomimetic adhesion function and highly active functional groups was employed to immobilize highly-dispersed Ag and TiO2 nanoparticles on the surface of bamboo via an in-situ growth method. Integrating the uniform PDA coating, photocatalytic function of TiO2 nanoparticles and bactericidal role of Ag nanoparticles, the mildew-proofing capability of bamboo is enhanced significantly. The results show a non-covalent interaction is more likely to account for the binding mechanism of PDA to bamboo. And the prepared bamboo samples show good photocatalytic performance and have excellent resistance leachability. Meanwhile, the mildew-proofing property of prepared bamboo sample was greatly improved.

Photoreduction route for Cu2O/TiO2 nanotubes junction for enhanced photocatalytic activity

Good photocatalytic performance is demonstrated by Cu2O NPs directly loaded onto hydrothermally synthesized TiO2 NTs via photoreduction method conducted with a lower power UV lamp at room temp. This is due to narrowing bandgap and forming an internal electric field.

One-step synthesis of CoO/g-C3N4 composites by thermal decomposition for overall water splitting without sacrificial reagents

10%CoO/g-C3N4 exhibits good photocatalytic performance under visible light irradiation without any sacrificial reagents.

The Synthesis of Single-Crystal BiOI Nanoplates with {001} Facets Exposed

BiOI photocatalyst induced by visible light shows good photocatalytic performance in degradation of organic dyes because of their unique structures and electronic band. This paper introduces the simple liquid method to synthetize nanometer sized single-crystal BiOI nanoplates, using Bi (NO3)3 and KI as the starting materials and water-ethanol as solvent. The BiOI nanoplates have the main ratio of exposed {001} facets. The morphology, structure, band-gap width and optical properties of BiOI nanoplates have been studied through SEM, TEM, XRD, DRS characterization methods.

Photodegradation of Methylene Blue by TiO2-Fe3O4-Bentonite Magnetic Nanocomposite

Fe3O4-bentonite nanoparticles have been prepared by a coprecipitation technique under a nitrogen atmosphere. An aqueous suspension of bentonite was first modified with FeCl2and FeCl3. TiO2was then loaded onto the surface of theFe3O4-bentonite by a sol-gel method. After sufficient drying, the colloidal solution was placed in a muffle furnace at 773 K to obtain theTiO2-Fe3O4-bentonite composite. The material has been characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM). Morphological observation showed thatFe3O4and TiO2nanoparticles had been adsorbed on the surface of bentonite nanoneedles. The material was then applied for the photodegradation of the azo dye methylene blue (MB). It was found that the removal efficiency of MB exceeded 90% under UV illumination, and that only a 20% mass loss was incurred after six cycles. The composite material thus showed good photocatalytic performance and recycling properties.

Template-Free Synthesis of Single Crystal MoO3 Nanobelts and its Potocatalytic Properties

Uniform 1D MoO3nanobelts were synthesized via a facile template-free hydrothermal process using (NH4)6Mo24·4H2O as raw materials. XRD, FE-SEM, HR-TEM techniques were employed to investigate the phase composition, morphology, and microstructure of as-synthesized samples. The MoO3nanobelts have single crystalline orthorhombic phase structure, preferentially grow in [001] direction. The photocatalytic properties were evaluated by the photodegradation of Rhodamine-B under visible light irradiation. The experimental result illustrated that the compound exhibits good photocatalytic performance for degradation of RhB under visible light irradiation.

NOVEL AND EFFICIENT THREE DIMENSIONAL MESOPOROUS ZnO NANOASSEMBLIES FOR ENVIRNOMENTAL REMEDIATION

This work demonstrates the fabrication of a novel three-dimensional (3D) mesoporous spherical ZnO nanoassembly by soft-chemical approach. XRD analysis revealed the formation of single phase hexagonal wurtzite nanostructure. It has been observed that each nanoassembly (100–600 nm) is comprised of numerous nanocrystals of size about 20 nm. These assemblies are fairly stable, well-defined, discrete and porous. The predominance of mesopores is evident from TEM and porosity measurements. Methylene blue (MB) was used as model dye to investigate the photocatalytic activity of ZnO nanoassemblies. These nanoassemblies have good photocatalytic performance due to its unique porous 3D nanostructure having defects. Furthermore, the ZnO nanoassemblies were also explored for the purification toxic metal ions such as Co2+ , Ni2+ , Cu2+ , Cd2+ , Pb2+ , Hg2+ and As3+ from waste-water.