[en] Microcystins (MCs) is a kind of hepatotoxin, which is the secondary metabolite of cyanobacteria. Bi₂O₂CO₃ (BOC) is a kind of cheap and nontoxic semiconductor material. BOC was synthetized by solvothermal method and then microcystin-LR (MC-LR) and microcystin-RR (MC-RR) were removed by BOC, through adsorption and photocatalytic degradation. When the dosage of BOC is 6 g/L, the MC-LR and MC-RR in the natural water sample can be completely adsorbed in 30 min and then after 12 h irradiation, MC-LR and MC-RR were photocatalytically degraded by BOC.

[en] Highlights: • Pt loaded ZnO-RGO nanoheterostructures have been used for photocatalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol. • Nanoheterostructure with 5 wt% of RGO and 2 wt% of Pt exhibited highest photocatalytic activity. • Synergetic effect of fast charge transfer across Schottky barrier and high pollutant adsorption ability of RGO has been studied. • Mechanism for enhanced photocatalytic activity has been proposed.

[en] We have developed a simple apparatus using optical fiber technology and portable spectrometer and used it to investigate photocatalytic degradation process of three kinds of dyes. The material was characterized and the photocatalytic process was studied using this apparatus using in situ spectroscopic technology. Based on the characterization results and the theoretical calculation, the photocatalytic mechanism is also analyzed. (paper)

[en] TiO₂ and N-substituted TiO_2-xN_x were synthesized by using precipitation method. TiO_2-xN_x compound absorbed whole UV light as well as long wavelength of visible light (400 - 700 nm) because of the change of band gap from 3.2 eV to 1.77 eV. Results obtained revealed that TiO_2-xN_x showed higher activity than pure TiO₂ or P-25 for visible-photocatalytic degradation of 1,4-dichlorobenzene

[en] In the present paper, we have investigated the effects of reaction temperature and duration of reaction on the properties of hydrothermally derived nano-crystalline Cu₂SnSe₃ (CTSe) powder. We report here for the first time, the morphology dependent photocatalytic performance of CTSe nanocrystals, which was analyzed by monitoring the photo-degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye under visible light irradiation. The reaction temperature and time was found to greatly influence the morphology of the nano-crystals, which consisted of flakes, discs or sheets in the nanometer range, depending upon the experimental conditions. Nanoflakes with rough surfaces degrade 73% of the dye in 3 h of light irradiation thus showing that highly crystalline CTSe nanocrystals having rough surfaces have the highest photocatalytic activity. (paper)

[en] Photocatalytic reduction of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) in ferric-tartrate system under irradiation of visible light was investigated. Effects of light resources, initial pH value and initial concentration of various reactants on Cr(VI) photocatalytic reduction were studied. Photoreaction kinetics was discussed and a possible photochemical pathway was proposed. The results indicate that Fe(III)-tartrate system is able to rapidly and effectively photocatalytically reduce Cr(VI) utilizing visible light. Initial pH variations results in the concentration changes of Fe(III)-tartrate complex in this system, and pH at 3.0 is optimal for Cr(VI) photocatalytic reduction. Efficiency of Cr(VI) photocatalytic reduction increases with increasing initial concentrations of Cr(VI), Fe(III) and tartrate. Kinetics analysis indicates that initial Fe(III) concentration affects Cr(VI) photoreduction most significantly

[en] The present paper examined the photocatalytic degradation (PCD) of gas-phase trichloroethylene (TCE) over thin-film TiO₂. A large-scale treatment of TCE was carried out using scale-up continuous flow photo-reactor in which nine reactors were arranged in parallel and series. The parallel or serial arrangement is a significant factor to determine the special arrangement of whole reactor module as well as to compact the multi-modules in a continuous flow reactor. The conversion of TCE according to the space time was nearly same for parallel and serial connection of the reactors.

[en] We report a chemical bath deposition approach for the preparation of large arrays of oriented ZnO nanostructures by activated substrate processes, and precipitated ZnO nanorods by passive occupation of the crystal surface. Photoluminescence dynamics showed that various visible emission characteristics associated with defects such as oxygen vacancy, zinc interstitial or their complexes. In addition, the precipitated ZnO nanorods exhibited excellent performance in the adsorption and photocatalytic decomposition of organic dyes, achieving 95% photodegradation of Rhodamine 6B. Moreover, oxygen defects function as trap sites with strong adsorption abilities towards organic dyes and showed high performance in the photocatalytic degradation of the dye molecules.

[en] Core/shell-structured nanodiamonds exhibit excellent adsorption and photocatalytic properties by annealing in an Ar atmosphere. Results show that core/shell-structured nanodiamond/onion-like carbon materials are obtained at high-temperature annealing (1400 °C–1500 °C) and possess a favorable visible light photocatalytic activity. Solutions with 10 and 100 mg L⁻¹ methyl orange can be nearly degraded completely within 30 min and 1 h, respectively, using nanodiamonds annealed at 1500 °C. (paper)

[en] Highlights: • CuInS₂ was fabricated by regulating Cu/In molar ratio via a hot solvent method. • CuInS₂ (Cu:In = 1:1.5) shows the highest visible-light photocatalytic activity. • CuInS₂ (Cu:In = 1:1.5) can mineralize real pharmaceutical wastewater. • CuInS₂ (Cu:In = 1:1.5) is stable and exhibits excellent reusability.