Synthesis of Ti-Ce-Si Binary and Ternary Nanocomposite Photocatalyst by Supercritical Fluid Drying Technology

Ti-Ce, Ti-Si binary and Ti-Ce-Si ternary novel nanocomposite oxide photocatalysts were prepared with cheap inorganic salts TiCI4, Na2SiO3·9H2O and Ce（NO3）3·6H2O as precursors by supercritical fluid drying （SCFD） technology. The catalysts were characterized by means of XRD and TEM. The particle size of nanocomposite oxide photocatalysts synthesized by SCFD method is about 6 - 11 nm, which is smaller than those obtained by common drying method （CD）. The phase transformation from anatase to rutile was inhibited by SCFD technology. The peaks of SiO2 and CeO2 in XRD patterns indicate that a SiO2 amorphorous phase exists in all the samples and CeO2 is well dispersed on the surface of TiO2. The orthogonal test was designed to optimize the preparing conditions. It is found that ceria dop;.ng enhances the photocatalyric activity markedly, and the optimum doping of CeO2 is 0.1%. The thermal stability of photocatalyst can be improved ; the growth of particle-size and the decrease of surface area can be prohibited by doping of SlOe. Heat-treatment is a necessary factor to induce chemistry change of Ti-Si surface. The optimum heat-treating temperature is 600℃. A novel and efficient Ti-Ce-Si ternary nanocomposite was prepared by SCFI） method with strong thermal stability and high photoactivity in the photodegratation of phenol.

Visible light induced cross-coupling synthesis of asymmetrical heterobiaryls using Pd/CeO_2 nanocomposite photocatalyst

A simple, mild and green approach has been developed for the synthesis of asymmetrical heterobiaryls under the irradiation of visible light without any oxidants and promoting reagents through using Pd/Ce O2 nanocomposite photocatalyst. This method can tolerate considerable functional groups such as electrondonating groups and electron-withdrawing groups through CààC cross-coupling. Moreover, we obtain the products with moderate yields in an efficient way. Finally, a plausible mechanism is proposed.

Synthesis,characterization and application of ZnO-Ag as a nanophotocatalyst for organic compounds degradation,mechanism and economic study

The current work deals with ZnO-Ag nanocomposites（in the wide range of x in the Zn1-x O-Ag x chemical composition） synthesized using microwave assisted solution combustion method.The structural, morphological and optical properties of the samples were characterized by XRD（X-ray diffraction）, FTIR（Fourier transform infrared spectrometry）, SEM（scanning electron microscopy technique）, EDX（energy dispersive X-ray spectrum）, ICP（inductively coupled plasma technique）, TEM（transmission electron microscopy）, BET（Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method）, UV–Vis（ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometer） and photoluminescence spectrophotometer. The photocatalytic activity of the ZnO-Ag was investigated by photo-degradation of Acid Blue 113（AB 113） under UV illumination in a semi-batch reactor. This experiment showed that ZnO-Ag has much more excellent photocatalytic properties than ZnO synthesized by the same method. The enhanced photocatalytic activity was due to the decrease in recombination of photogenerated electron-holes. The results showed the improvement of ZnO photocatalytic activity and there is an optimum amount of Ag（3.5 mol%） that needs to be doped with ZnO.The effect of operating parameters such as p H, catalyst dose and dye concentration were investigated. The reaction byproducts were identified by LC/MS（liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry） analysis and a pathway was proposed as well. Kinetic studies indicated that the decolorization process follows the first order kinetics. Also, the degradation percentage of AB113 was determined using a total organic carbon（TOC） analyzer. Additionally, cost analysis of the process, the mechanism and the role of Ag were discussed.