Seminario de investigación: Photocatalytic functional materials for solar-driven environmental remediation

Por Anna Zielinska-Jurek

INAMAT2 organiza este seminario que tendrá lugar el día 8 de junio en la sala de conferencias del edificio Jerónimo de Ayanz a las 11:30h.

Resumen:

Photocatalysis is one of the successful methods that consists of removing persistent organic pollutants, and it is also classified as green technology. The importance of photocatalysis is related to increased environmental problems regarding climate change, energy scarcity, and greenhouse gas emissions, increasing the need for new environmentally beneficial technologies. Photocatalysis, as an advanced treatment technology, is proposed for the treatment of effluents that are too dilute for incineration and too concentrated for biological treatment or contain highly toxic organic compounds. The mechanism of photocatalysis is dependent on the electrical structure of a semiconductor. Our recent studies on the relationships between crystal and surface structure, surface chemistry, and photocatalytic properties have advanced our understanding of the behaviour of photocatalytic materials, thereby enabling improvements in their performance. The results showed that for the non-modified photocatalyst exposing the majority of only one facet, the {1 0 1} crystal planes exhibited the highest degradation rate and mineralization when compared to the {1 0 0} and {0 0 1} ones. It was proved that the efficiency of such a process depended primarily on the density of the surface trapping sites of the photocatalyst, which is high for {1 0 1} facet, whereas surface energy had only a minor impact. Therefore, controlling the structure of synthesized materials enables designing the photocatalyst for desired applications.

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