Green Photocatalysts for Energy and Environmental Process

Dear Colleagues,

Sunlight is a naturally available, non-polluting, and limitless source of renewable energy, which can be stored chemically, or utilized in carrying out 'green' chemical synthesis. Unlike conventional thermal or nuclear energy production, light does never introduce any byproducts or toxic wastes. Solar energy appears as one of the most intriguing sources of energy, where nature is utilizing it from the very beginning in the photosynthesis process. The photocatalysis begins with titanium dioxide in human civilization, but the history of TiO₂ is linked with ancient times, as this white pigment is chemically stable, inexpensive, and harmless. It draws special attention to science in the early part of the 20th century. In 1938, TiO₂ was used in photobleaching for dyes. Later, while Akira Fujishima was working under Professor Kenichi Honda as a Ph.D. student at Tokyo University in 1967, they discovered the photocatalytic decomposition of water by exposing the TiO₂ electrode under a strong light. Thereafter the scientists from different fields came and diversified the Photocatalysts for various applications. The materials like quantum dots, metal-organic frameworks, composite materials, organic molecules, or metal complexes are used in water splitting, CO₂ reduction, decomposition of organic pollutants, organic synthesis, etc. In this emerging area, computational modeling is becoming an indispensable part of the catalyst designing strategy, before preparing them chemically in a wet laboratory.

To bring some of the exciting recent works on green photocatalysts, this special issue on ‘Green Photocatalysts for Energy and Environmental Process’ is opened for all contributors of the photocatalysis for renewable energy storage, photodegradation of pollutants, and photosynthesis fields. We also inspire the authors to emphasize the designing strategy of catalysts for motivating the young researchers as well. Here we invite authors to submit novel and original works to this special issue which could accumulatively extend and advance our scientific understanding. This issue will emphasize the following areas mentioned as keywords, but could even be diversified further.  ​

Before submission authors are requested to read carefully the journal’s guidelines for authors. Review papers can only be submitted by editorial invitation. Please note that the papers that match with the scope of this Special Issue will only be considered.

Dr. Pathik Sahoo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. ChemEngineering is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Green Photocatalysts
• Nanostructured photocatalysts
• MOF based photocatalyst
• Bio-inspired catalysts
• Artificial photosynthesis
• Cyanobacteria
• Photodegradation
• Renewable energy
• Greenhouse Gas control
• Water splitting
• CO₂ reduction