Modifying TiO2 Nanoparticles by Atomic Layer Deposition for Enhanced Photocatalytic Water Purification

Photocatalysts, contrary to conventional catalysts, utilize light to drive a reaction. By absorption of photons, electrons are excited and reach higher states to initiate a redox reaction. This principle can be broadly used to produce chemicals such as hydrogen via the reduction of water or transform carbon dioxide into solar fuels, i.e.,...

Optimizing photon utilization in LED-based photocatalytic reactors

Photocatalysis involves the absorption of photons by a semiconductor to enhance chemical reactions. Examples of important applications include the degradation of hazardous chemicals, reduction of carbon dioxide to valuable chemicals and (partial) oxidation of hydrocarbons. Despite many successful demonstrations of this technology at lab-scale,...

Understanding metal-organic frameworks for photocatalytic solar fuel production

The fascinating chemical and physical properties of MOFs have recently stimulated exploration of their application for photocatalysis. Despite the intense research effort, the efficiencies of most photocatalytic MOFs for solar fuel generation are still very modest. In this introduction we analyse the current status of the field and stress the...

Metal-Organic Frameworks for solar energy utilization

The research strategy followed in this work was inspired by natural photosynthesis that, for simplicity, can be divided into three principal steps: (i) efficient light absorption at wavelengths abundant in the solar light; (ii) long-lived charge separation achieved by funnelling of the photogenerated electrons away from the light-absorbing...

Novel approaches for biocatalytic oxyfunctionalization reactions

Biocatalytic oxyfunctionalizations, especially of non - activated hydrocarbons, attract considerable attention for synthetic organic chemistry thanks to their high chemo-, regio-, and stereoselectivity, which difficult to achieve by chemical means. Many enzymatic oxyfunctionalizations have been described. However, there are many hurdles towards...

Selective Photocatalytic Reduction of NOx with Fe-doped TiO2: A New Approach Towards Photocatalyst Design

Conventional TiO2 based photocatalysts oxidize NOx to nitrates which do not automatically desorb and have to be washed away from the catalyst surface. To avoid this, the research described in this thesis aims to design new photocatalysts that can photo-reduce NO into N2 and O2. Previous efforts in the literature have shown that catalysts...

Functionalized TUD-1: Synthesis, characterization and (photo-)catalytic performance

The new mesoporous material; TUD-1 is chosen of which the synthesis, characterization, and functionalization for (photo)-catalytic performance are extensively investigated in this study. The synthesis of the new catalytic materials M TUD-1 (M = Ti, V, Cr, Mo, Fe, Co and Cu) is carried out through an easy one-pot synthesis procedure, mainly...