Photocatalytic H2 Production by Visible Light on Cd0.5Zn0.5S Photocatalysts Modified with Ni(OH)2 by Impregnation Method.

Nowadays, the study of environmentally friendly ways of producing hydrogen as a green energy source is an increasingly important challenge. One of these potential processes is the heterogeneous photocatalytic splitting of water or other hydrogen sources such as H2S or its alkaline solution. The most common catalysts used for H2 production from Na2S solution are the CdS-ZnS type catalysts, whose efficiency can be further enhanced by Ni-modification. In this work, the surface of Cd0.5Zn0.5S composite was modified with Ni(II) compound for photocatalytic H2 generation. Besides two conventional methods, impregnation was also applied, which is a simple but unconventional modification technique for the CdS-type catalysts. Among the catalysts modified with 1% Ni(II), the impregnation method resulted in the highest activity, for which a quantum efficiency of 15.8% was achieved by using a 415 nm LED and Na2S-Na2SO3 sacrificial solution. This corresponded to an outstanding rate of 170 mmol H2/h/g under the given experimental conditions. The catalysts were characterized by DRS, XRD, TEM, STEM-EDS, and XPS analyses, which confirmed that Ni(II) is mainly present as Ni(OH)2 on the surface of the CdS-ZnS composite. The observations from the illumination experiments indicated that Ni(OH)2 was oxidized during the reaction, and that it therefore played a hole-trapping role.

Investigating the Effect of Reflectance Tuning on Photocatalytic Dye Degradation with Biotemplated ZnO Photonic Nanoarchitectures Based on Morpho Butterfly Wings.

Photonic nanoarchitectures of butterfly wings can serve as biotemplates to prepare semiconductor thin films of ZnO by atomic layer deposition. The resulting biotemplated ZnO nanoarchitecture preserves the structural and optical properties of the natural system, while it will also have the features of the functional material. The ZnO-coated wings can be used directly in heterogeneous photocatalysis to decompose pollutants dissolved in water upon visible light illumination. We used the photonic nanoarchitectures of different Morpho butterflies with different structural colors as biotemplates and examined the dependence of decomposition rates of methyl orange and rhodamine B dyes on the structural color of the biotemplates and the thickness of the ZnO coating. Using methyl orange, we measured a ten-fold increase in photodegradation rate when the 20 nm ZnO-coated wings were compared to similarly coated glass substrates. Using rhodamine B, a saturating relationship was found between the degradation rate and the thickness of the deposited ZnO on butterfly wings. We concluded that the enhancement of the catalytic efficiency can be attributed to the slow light effect due to a spectral overlap between the ZnO-coated Morpho butterfly wings reflectance with the absorption band of dyes, thus the photocatalytic performance could be changed by the tuning of the structural color of the butterfly biotemplates. The photodegradation mechanism of the dyes was investigated by liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy.

Spectral Engineering of Hybrid Biotemplated Photonic/Photocatalytic Nanoarchitectures.

Solar radiation is a cheap and abundant energy for water remediation, hydrogen generation by water splitting, and CO2 reduction. Supported photocatalysts have to be tuned to the pollutants to be eliminated. Spectral engineering may be a handy tool to increase the efficiency or the selectivity of these. Photonic nanoarchitectures of biological origin with hierarchical organization from nanometers to centimeters are candidates for such applications. We used the blue wing surface of laboratory-reared male Polyommatus icarus butterflies in combination with atomic layer deposition (ALD) of conformal ZnO coating and octahedral Cu2O nanoparticles (NP) to explore the possibilities of engineering the optical and catalytic properties of hybrid photonic nanoarchitectures. The samples were characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy and optical and scanning electron microscopy. Their photocatalytic performance was benchmarked by comparing the initial decomposition rates of rhodamine B. Cu2O NPs alone or on the butterfly wings, covered by a 5 nm thick layer of ZnO, showed poor performance. Butterfly wings, or ZnO coated butterfly wings with 15 nm ALD layer showed a 3 to 3.5 times enhancement as compared to bare glass. The best performance of almost 4.3 times increase was obtained for the wings conformally coated with 15 nm ZnO, deposited with Cu2O NPs, followed by conformal coating with an additional 5 nm of ZnO by ALD. This enhanced efficiency is associated with slow light effects on the red edge of the reflectance maximum of the photonic nanoarchitectures and with enhanced carrier separation through the n-type ZnO and the p-type Cu2O heterojunction. Properly chosen biologic photonic nanoarchitectures in combination with carefully selected photocatalyst(s) can significantly increase the photodegradation of pollutants in water under visible light illumination.

Bio-inspired amino acid oxidation by a non-heme iron catalyst modeling the action of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid oxidase.

In this communication we describe the first example of a biomimetic mononuclear iron complex, [Fe(III)(Salen)Cl] (Salen = N,N'-bis(salicylidene)-ethylenediaminato), that highly selectively and efficiently catalyzes the oxidation of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACCH), α-aminoisobutyric acid (AIBH), and alanine (ALAH) to ethylene or the corresponding carbonyl compounds, mimicking the action of the non-heme iron enzyme 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid oxidase (ACCO).

Dimerization processes of square planar [PtII(tbpy)(dithiolato*)]+ radicals.

The preparation and structural characterization of the neutral, square planar complexes [PtII(tbpy)(A)] (1), [PtII(tbpy)(B)] (2), and [PtII(PPh3)2(B)] (3) have been accomplished, where (tbpy) = 4,4'-di-tert-butylpyridine, (A)2- = 3,6-bis(trimethylsilyl)-1,2-benzenedithiolate(2-), and (B)2- = 1,2-bis(4-tert-butylphenyl)ethylene-1,2-dithiolate(2-) and (A*)1- and (B*)1- represent the corresponding monoanionic radicals. Electrochemical and chemical one-electron oxidation of 1 and 2 in CH2Cl2 solution affords the monomeric monocations [PtII(tbpy)(A*)]+ (1a) and [PtII(tbpy)(B*)]+ (2a), both of which possess an S = 1/2 ground state. The corresponding spin doublet monocationic dimers [PtII2(tbpy)2(A)(A*)]+ (1b) and [PtII2(tbpy)2(B)(B*)]+ (2b) were electrochemically generated in solution (50% oxidation) and identified by X-band EPR spectroscopy. Complete one-electron oxidation of 1 and 2 yielded the diamagnetic dimers [PtII2(tbpy)2(A*)2]2+ (1c) and [PtII2(tbpy)2(B*)2]2+ (2c) which are in equilibrium with the corresponding paramagnetic monomers 1a and 2a in solution. The crystal structure of [PtII2(tbpy)2(B*)2](PF6)2.3CH2Cl2 (2c) revealed a centrosymmetric, lateral dimer whose bridging part is a PtII2(mu2-S)2 rhomb; the metal ions possess a square based pyramidal geometry. Solid-state sulfur K-edge X-ray absorption spectra of 1, 2, 2a, 2c, and [PtII(B*)2]0 (4) have been recorded, which clearly show that a sulfur-centered radical (B*)1- is present in 2a, 2c, and 4. The absence of ligand-based radicals in 1 and 2 is also clearly established. One-electron oxidation of [Pt(PPh3)2(B)] (3) afforded only the spin doublet species [PtII(PPh3)2(B*)]+ (3a); no dimer formation was detected. Synthesis and crystal structure of square planar [PtII(B*)2]0.thf are also reported.