Abstract
This article reviews the role of solid-solid interface between phases and materials in photocatalytic reactions. We hypothesize that the solid-solid interface is a key structural feature that facilitates charge separation to hinder recombination and enhance photocatalytic efficiency, and may be the locus of defect sites that act as catalytic "hot spots". The focus of this article is TiO2-based photocatalytic materials and we present the work of others and some of our recent work synthesizing, characterizing, and testing TiO2-based nanocomposites, especially mixed-phase titanium dioxide. The implications of this deeper understanding of structure-function relationships to energy applications are also discussed.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 173-187 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Chemical Physics |
| Volume | 339 |
| Issue number | 1-3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 15 2007 |
Funding
The authors thank the US Department of Energy (DE-FG02-03ER15457/A003 and 5F-00546/W-31-109-ENG38) and National Science Foundation (Grant No. BES-0403581) for funding the research described in this paper. We are grateful to Le Chen and Dr. Michael E. Graham of Northwestern University, and Dr. Nada Dimitrijevic and Dr. Tijana Rajh of Argonne National Laboratory for their assistance in many aspects discussed in this paper. Dr. Gonghu Li was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences, under contract DE-AC02-06CH11357.
Keywords
- Energy applications
- Nanocomposites
- Solid-solid interface
- Titanium dioxide
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Physics and Astronomy
- Physical and Theoretical Chemistry