Au-Pd/mesoporous Fe_2O_3:Highly active photocatalysts for the visible-light-driven degradation of acetone

Three-dimensionally ordered mesoporous Fe2O3（meso-Fe2O3） and its supported Au, Pd,and Au-Pd alloy（xA uP dy/meso-Fe2O3; x = 0.08–0.72 wt.%; Pd/Au molar ratio（y） = 1.48–1.85）photocatalysts have been prepared via the KIT-6-templating and polyvinyl alcohol-protected reduction routes, respectively. Physical properties of the samples were characterized, and their photocatalytic activities were evaluated for the photocatalytic oxidation of acetone in the presence of a small amount of H2O2 under visible-light illumination. It was found that the meso-Fe2O3 was rhombohedral in crystal structure. The as-obtained samples displayed a high surface area of 111.0–140.8 m^2/g and a bandgap energy of 1.98–2.12 eV. The Au, Pd and/or Au–Pd alloy nanoparticles（NPs） with a size of 3–4 nm were uniformly dispersed on the surface of the meso-Fe2O3 support. The 0.72 wt.% AuP d1.48/meso-Fe2O3 sample performed the best in the presence of 0.06 mol/L H2O2 aqueous solution, showing a 100% acetone conversion within4 hr of visible-light illumination. It was concluded that the good performance of 0.72 wt.%AuPd（1.48）/meso-Fe2O3 for photocatalytic acetone oxidation was associated with its ordered mesoporous structure, high adsorbed oxygen species concentration, plasmonic resonance effect between AuPd（1.48） NPs and meso-Fe2O3, and effective separation of the photogenerated charge carriers. In addition, the introduction of H2O2 and the involvement of the photo-Fenton process also played important roles in enhancing the photocatalytic activity of 0.72 wt.%AuPd（1.48）/meso-Fe2O3.

Combined effects of adsorption and photocatalysis by hybrid TiO_2/ZnO-calcium alginate beads for the removal of copper

The use of nanosized titanium dioxide（TiO2） and zinc oxide（ZnO） in the suspension form during treatment makes the recovering and recycling of photocatalysts difficult.Hence,supported photocatalysts are preferred for practical water treatment applications.This study was conducted to investigate the efficiency of calcium alginate（CaAlg） beads that were immobilized with hybrid photocatalysts,TiO2/ZnO to form TiO2/ZnO-CaAlg.These immobilized beads,with three different mass ratios of TiO2：ZnO（1：1,1：2,and 2：1） were used to remove Cu（Ⅱ） in aqueous solutions in the presence of ultraviolet light.These beads were subjected to three cycles of photocatalytic treatment with different initial Cu（Ⅱ） concentrations（10-80 ppm）.EDX spectra have confirmed the inclusion of Ti and Zn on the surface of the CaAlg beads.Meanwhile,the surface morphology of the beads as determined using SEM,has indicated differences of before and after the photocatalytic treatment of Cu（Ⅱ）.Among all three,the equivalent mass ratio TiO2/ZnO-CaAlg beads have shown the best performance in removing Cu（Ⅱ） during all three recycling experiments.Those TiO2/ZnO-CaAlg beads have also shown consistent removal of Cu,ranging from 7.14-52.0 ppm（first cycle） for initial concentrations of10-80 ppm.In comparison,bare CaAlg was only able to remove 6.9-48 ppm of similar initial Cu concentrations.Thus,the potential use of TiO2/ZnO-CaAlg beads as environmentally friendly composite material can be further extended for heavy metal removal from contaminated water.