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Dear Colleagues,

The thermal properties of nanomaterials are important in both their preparation and application. Several nanostructured compounds are prepared by thermal decomposition of their precursors, and detailed knowledge of the decomposition scheme is vital to be able to control the structure, composition, and morphology of the as-prepared nanomaterials. It is also well known that the synthesis of nanomaterials produces amorphous products and a further annealing step is needed to make them crystalline. Heating is also often used to remove unreacted precursors and byproducts. When complex nanomaterials are prepared using sacrificial templates (e.g., hollow nanoparticles and inverse opals), annealing is one method of removing organic core materials. The thermal stability of a nanostructure is important for many applications that require elevated temperatures (e.g., fuel cells, gas sensing, catalysis). For some nanosystems, temperature and heat change or transfer are central to their applications, e.g., phase-change materials, nanofluids, etc.

Among the many possible applications of nanomaterials, photocatalysis is notable. It uses solar energy as a renewable source, making it one of the most promising technologies for the elimination of toxic compounds from water due to the advantages of its high activity, photochemical stability, and cost-efficiency. Beside aqueous applications, it can also significantly increase indoor air quality and contribute to eliminating pollutants such as VOCs indoors or outdoors. In addition to oxidation, photocatalytic reduction in harmful molecules (e.g., NOx) is an emerging field.

Photocatalytic synthesis is also a major field of green chemistry. It ranges from artificial photosynthesis by converting CO₂ and H₂O into organic raw molecules to producing photocatalytic synthetic versions of more sophisticated organic processes.

There are many exciting materials and processes appearing in contemporary photocatalytic research, including photonic bandgap structures and all-organic photocatalysts. Using computation chemistry and applying extreme laser infrastructure to understand photon absorption, excitation, and dissipation processes and the photochemical reactions that occur therewith are also hot topics in this field.

The present Special Issue aims to collect studies, and their results, comprising the latest developments on the thermal and photocatalytic properties of nanomaterials.

Dr. Imre Miklós Szilágyi
Dr. Klára Hernádi
Dr. Ottó Horváth
Guest Editors

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

18 pages, 5672 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Copper-Modification of g-C₃N₄ on the Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalytic Oxidation of Nitrophenols

by Truong Nguyen Xuan, Dien Nguyen Thi, Quang Tran Thuong, Tue Nguyen Ngoc, Khanh Dang Quoc, Zsombor Molnár, Shoaib Mukhtar, Erzsébet Szabó-Bárdos and Ottó Horváth

Molecules 2023, 28(23), 7810; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28237810 - 27 Nov 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 816

Abstract

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) has proved to be a promising heterogeneous photocatalyst in the visible range. It can be used, among others, for the oxidative conversion of environmentally harmful nitrophenols occurring in wastewater. However, its photocatalytic activity needs to be enhanced, which can be achieved by modification with various dopants. In our work, copper-modified g-C₃N₄ was prepared by ultrasonic impregnation of the pristine g-C₃N₄ synthesized from thiourea. The morphology, microstructure, and optical properties of the photocatalysts were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, DRS, SEM, XPS, and TEM. DRS analysis indicated a slight change in both the CB and the VB energies of Cu/g-C₃N₄ compared to those of g-C₃N₄. The efficiency of the photocatalysts prepared was tested by the degradation of nitrophenols. Copper modification caused a sevenfold increase in the rate of 4-nitrophenol degradation in the presence of H₂O₂ at pH = 3. This dramatic enhancement can be attributed to the synergistic effect of copper and H₂O₂ in this photocatalytic system. A minor Fenton reaction role was also detected. The reusability of the Cu/g-C₃N₄ catalyst was demonstrated through five cycles. Copper-modified g-C₃N₄ with H₂O₂ proved to be applicable for efficient visible-light-driven photocatalytic oxidative degradation of nitrophenols. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermal and Photocatalytic Analysis of Nanomaterials: 2nd Edition)

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