High yield post-thermal treatment of bulk graphitic carbon nitride with tunable band structure for enhanced deNOx photocatalysis.

The bulk graphitic carbon nitride (CN) suffers from low specific surface area, which limits its practical application for air purification. Here, we reported a facile post-thermal treatment to break bulk CN into nanosheets whose specific surface areas increased from 13.6 m2 g-1 to 68.0 m2 g-1. The yield of CN nanosheets reached up to 67%, and its photocatalytic decomposition of NOx activity was about 3.0 times higher than that of bulk CN. Moreover, the CN nanosheets obtained at 550 °C with higher specific surface area (113.9 m2 g-1) displayed lower photocatalytic activity than that obtained at 500 °C with lower specific surface area (68.0 m2 g-1), which was attributed to its lower valence band. This study illustrates that many factors including specific surface area and band structure could affect the performance of photocatalysts so that it is necessary to take account of various factors. Moreover, the facile and high yield thermal treatment provides the foundation for further large-scale industrial applications.

Ag-TON nanospheres coupled with fly ash cenospheres for wastewater treatment under visible light irradiation.

Using tetra-n-butyl titanate as raw material and fly ash cenospheres (FAC) as carrier, the photocatalysts of Ag-TON/FAC were successfully prepared by solvothermal and in-situ hydrolysis method. These visible light photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fluorescence spectroscopy (FL) and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS). In this study, methyl orange and ciprofloxacin were used as wastewater degradation targets to investigate the effect of the amount of titanium dioxide and the amount of Ag doping on the activity of photocatalysts. On the basis of this, the optimal ratio of TiO2 to FAC was 2:1 and the optimum doping ratio of Ag was determined to be 15 wt.%. The composite photocatalysts dispersed uniformly and were easy to recycle and reuse, which were benefits in fully utilizing the solar energy. The degradation efficiency remained at more than 60% after being renewed five times for MO and ciprofloxacin. The photocatalysts of Ag-TON/FAC can reduce the environmental burden caused by FAC also.

Wearable Smart Silicone Belt for Human Motion Monitoring and Power Generation.

Human physical activity monitoring plays a crucial role in promoting personalized health management. In this work, inspired by an ancient Chinese belt, a belt-type wearable sensor (BWS) based on a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is presented to monitor daily movements and collect the body motion mechanical energy. The developed BWS consists of a soft silicone sheet and systematically connected sensing units made from triboelectric polymer materials including polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polyamide (PA). A parameter study of the sensing units is firstly conducted to optimize the structure of BWS. The experimental studies indicate that the parameter-optimized BWS unit achieves a maximum output voltage of 47 V and a maximum current of 0.17 µA. A BWS with five sensing units is manufactured to record body movements, and it is able to distinguish different physical activities including stillness, walking, running, jumping, normal breathing, cessation of breathing, and deep breathing. In addition, the developed BWS successfully powers electronic devices including a smartphone, digital watch, and LED lights. We hope this work provides a new strategy for the development of wearable self-powered intelligent devices.

Fabrication of N and F Modified La-TiO2 Nanoparticles and Their Enhanced Photocatalytic Response to Visible Light.

N and F co-doped La-TiO2 (La-TONF) samples were prepared through the solvothermal method by using HMT and NaF as precursors. The obtained samples were characterized by UV-Vis DRS, XRD, XPS and PL measurements for light-harvesting properties, crystal phase and optical characteristics, respectively. Interestingly, the TONF sample had a different fluorescence emission intensity than the TON or TOF samples, thus suggesting a clear synergistic effect of N and F co-doping. The optimal doping amount of La was 2 wt.%, and the absorption edge was red-shifted from 453 nm to 464 nm for La-TiO2 and La-TONF. The photocatalytic activity was evaluated by degradation of MO and oxidation of TMB under visible light irradiation. La-TONF exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity and a degradation rate of 92.4%, 4.4 times that of undoped TiO2 (20.8%). The photocatalytic degradation activity remained above 85.8%, even after five runs. In addition, the MO photodegradation catalyzed by La-TONF followed first order kinetics. According these results, a possible synergistic effect mechanism for the enhanced photocatalytic performance is proposed.