Photocatalysts

Deposition of nanocrystalline TiO2 thin films on PET at 130C

by Material Science

DOI: 10.1109/ASEMD.2011.6145136

A sol-gel method was used to produce thin films of the
anatase polymorph of titania on poly(ethylene... more A sol-gel method was used to produce thin films of the
anatase polymorph of titania on poly(ethylene Terephthalate)
(PET). This was done at a temperature of only 130°C, which
demonstrates the feasibility of the fabrication of flexible
photocatalyts, solar cells, and other semiconducting materials.
The films were ~570 nm thick and were comprised of grains of
15-25 nm diameter; these grains themselves consisted of
crystallites of 5-10 nm diameter

Single and Mixed Phase TiO2 Powders by Excess Hydrolysis of Titanium Alkoxide

by Material Science

To investigate excess-hydrolysis of titanium alkoxides, TiO2 powders were fabricated from titanium-tetra-isopropoxide... more To investigate excess-hydrolysis of titanium alkoxides, TiO2 powders were fabricated from titanium-tetra-isopropoxide using 6:1 and 100:1 H2O:Ti (r) ratios. Powders were dried and fired at a range of temperatures (≤800ºC). Hydroxylation and organic content in powders were characterised using ATR-FTIR, laser Raman microspectroscopy, and elemental microanalysis; surface area and pore size distribution were evaluated using N2 gas adsorption; phase composition was analysed using XRD and laser Raman microspectroscopy; and crystallite size was evaluated by XRD, TEM and SEM. Results showed near-complete hydrolysis in a predominantly aqueous medium (r = 100), resulting in precipitated crystalline powders exhibiting brookite and anatase, which begin to transform to rutile below 500°C. Powders precipitated in a predominantly organic medium (r = 6) underwent partial hydrolysis, were highly porous and exhibited an amorphous structure, with crystallisation of anatase occurring at ~300°C and transformation to rutile beginning at 500°-600°C.

Enhanced visible-light-responsive photocatalytic property of CdS and PbS sensitized ZnO nanocomposite photocatalysts

by Nicola Gargiulo

CdS and PbS nanoparticles sensitized ZnO nanorods were synthesized by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction... more CdS and PbS nanoparticles sensitized ZnO nanorods were synthesized by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction method. The photocatalytic activity of different structures was evaluated by photocatalytic degeneration yield of methyl orange. Co-sensitization of CdS and PbS nanoparticles on ZnO nanorods showed enhanced photocatalytic activity due to its response at visible light area and the stepwise band gap constructed in ZnO/CdS/PbS nanostructures.

Interwoven landscape

by Alessio Erioli

Co-authored with Mirco Bianchini; additional collaboration from Piero Bruschi and Andrea Baschieri for the chemical developments.

Published in "2011 International Conference on Green Buildings and Sustainable Cities" - Procedia Engineering

Human specie has always engineered the environment to set the conditions for its own settlement, producing in its... more Human specie has always engineered the environment to set the conditions for its own settlement, producing in its evolutionary development superorganisms (cities) and the necessary networks of connections among them. Instead of rejecting cars as an extraneous object to a picturesque nature, this project starts from a perspective in which cities and technology are the metabolic extension of human specie and therefore a necessary part of its own nature; the vessels (vehicles) for human transportation, or better, the vehicle-host symbiotic system thus becomes a necessary part of human ecology, and so the network of connections upon which they live, operate and interact with: infrastructures. The project of an environmental enhancer for the Nogara mare highway in Veneto (Italy) provides the unique chance to bring together ecological thinking, host interaction and active materials. Its location (an open country planar area among cultivated fields) enucleates as critical variables the impact of pollutants and the phenomenon of dazzling. With respect to such criticalities, the project uses digital generative and parametric strategies to generate a performative structure in which densification and rarefaction of elements is a local morphological response to dazzle. The structure itself acts as a scaffold for a photo catalytic PET based material that, mimicking the behavior of coccoluti (marine microorganisms) is able to reduce CO2 (and potentially other pollutants) to salts and nitrates that are then naturally deployed to the neighboring cultivated fields as fertilizers. The material has been tested for photo catalytic integration and is currently under development. Present building and production techniques privilege the industrial assembly of inert materials, with a one-way flow of energy and process from raw material to finished product. Instead of this mono-directional energy consumption the project promotes the continuous exchange of information (as code and matter-energy) at all levels and from the digital to the material domains: use of dazzle information, morphogenetic rules and structural behavior to generate the scaffold, a photo catalytic material that responds to pollutants and produces fertilizers, making the structure symbiotic with their hosts and the environment.

Enhanced Visible Light Photodegradation of Water Pollutants over N-, S-doped Titanium dioxide and n-Titanium dioxide in the presence of Inorganic Anions

by Abdullah Asiri

Photo-Oxidation by Singlet Oxygen Generated on Nanoporous Silicon In a LED-Powered Reactor

by Sergej Polisski