Emerging Polymeric Photocatalysts for Energy and Environmental Applications

A special issue of Catalysts (ISSN 2073-4344). This special issue belongs to the section "Photocatalysis".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2021) | Viewed by 3104

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia
Interests: 2D nanomaterials; photocatalysis; solar-driven H2O2 production; water treatment; antibacterial
School of Environmental Science and Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Interests: disinfection; photocatalysis/catalysis; advanced oxidation process (AOP)
Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada
Interests: biomass photoreforming; selective conversion; platform chemicals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Polymeric materials are emerging and promising semiconductors for energy and environmental applications. This is because they are based on Earth-abundant elements. More importantly, the bandgap, charge carrier mobility and band energy level of polymeric materials are molecularly tunable. Such unique features of polymers are motivating researchers to develop innovative polymeric semiconductors for various photocatalysis reactions that can solve the current energy and environmental challenges.  

This Special Issue aims to collect original research papers, reviews, and perspectives on polymer-based photocatalysts for energy and environmental applications. Submissions are welcome especially (but not exclusively) in the following areas:

  • Development of novel polymeric materials for photocatalysis;
  • Functionalization of polymeric materials for photocatalysis;
  • Rational design of polymeric composite photocatalysts;
  • Innovative techniques for characterizing polymeric photocatalysts;
  • Photocatalysts for energy and environmental applications, e.g., water splitting, CO2 reduction, H2O2 production, pollutant degradation, bacteria disinfection, advanced oxidation processes, and the photoreforming of biomass 

We look forward to receiving your contributions. 

Dr. Xiangkang Zeng
Prof. Dehua Xia
Dr. Heng Zhao
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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. Catalysts is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2700 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.

Keywords

  • Polymeric photocatalysts
  • Water splitting
  • CO2 photoreduction
  • Light-driven H2O2 production
  • Photocatalytic organic pollution degradation
  • Photocatalytic bacteria disinfection
  • Photocatalysts for advanced oxidation process
  • Photoreforming of biomass

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

11 pages, 3200 KiB  
Article
NiO-TiO2 p-n Heterojunction for Solar Hydrogen Generation
by Dewen Zheng, Heng Zhao, Shanyu Wang, Jinguang Hu and Zhangxin Chen
Catalysts 2021, 11(12), 1427; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal11121427 - 24 Nov 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2404
Abstract
Photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen production has been widely recognized as a promising strategy for relieving the pressure from energy crisis and environmental pollution. However, current efficiency for photocatalytic hydrogen generation has been limited due to a low separation of photogenerated electrons and [...] Read more.
Photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen production has been widely recognized as a promising strategy for relieving the pressure from energy crisis and environmental pollution. However, current efficiency for photocatalytic hydrogen generation has been limited due to a low separation of photogenerated electrons and holes. p-n heterojunction with a built-in electric field emerges as an efficient strategy for photocatalyst design to boost hydrogen evolution activities due to a spontaneous charge separation. In this work, we investigated the effect of different preparation methods on photocatalytic hydrogen production over NiO-TiO2 composites. The results demonstrated that a uniform distribution of NiO on a surface of TiO2 with an intimate interfacial interaction was formed by a sol-gel method, while direct calcination tended to form aggregation of NiO, thus leading to an uneven p-n heterojunction structure within a photocatalyst. NiO-TiO2 composites fabricated by different methods showed enhanced hydrogen production (23.5 ± 1.2, 20.4 ± 1.0 and 8.8 ± 0.7 mmolh−1g−1 for S1-20%, S2-20% and S3-10%, respectively) as compared with pristine TiO2 (6.6 ± 0.7 mmolh−1g−1) and NiO (2.1 ± 0.2 mmolh−1g−1). The current work demonstrates a good example to improve photocatalytic hydrogen production by finely designing p-n heterojunction photocatalysts. Full article
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