Advancements in TiO2-based photocatalysis for environmental remediation: Strategies for enhancing visible-light-driven activity.

Researchers have focused on efficient techniques for degrading hazardous organic pollutants due to their negative impacts on ecological systems, necessitating immediate remediation. Specifically, TiO2-based photocatalysts, a wide-bandgap semiconductor material, have been extensively studied for their application in environmental remediation. However, the extensive band gap energy and speedy reattachment of electron (e-) and hole (h+) pairs in bare TiO2 are considered major disadvantages for photocatalysis. This review extensively focuses on the combination of semiconducting photocatalysts for commercial outcomes to develop efficient heterojunctions with high photocatalytic activity by minimizing the e-/h+ recombination rate. The improved activity of these heterojunctions is due to their greater surface area, rich active sites, narrow band gap, and high light-harvesting tendency. In this context, strategies for increasing visible light activity, including doping with metals and non-metals, surface modifications, morphology control, composite formation, heterojunction formation, bandgap engineering, surface plasmon resonance, and optimizing reaction conditions are discussed. Furthermore, this review critically assesses the latest developments in TiO2 photocatalysts for the efficient decomposition of various organic contaminants from wastewater, such as pharmaceutical waste, dyes, pesticides, aromatic hydrocarbons, and halo compounds. This review implies that doping is an effective, economical, and simple process for TiO2 nanostructures and that a heterogeneous photocatalytic mechanism is an eco-friendly substitute for the removal of various pollutants. This review provides valuable insights for researchers involved in the development of efficient photocatalysts for environmental remediation.

Hard Carbons as Anodes in Sodium-Ion Batteries: Sodium Storage Mechanism and Optimization Strategies.

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are regarded as promising alternatives to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in the field of energy, especially in large-scale energy storage systems. Tremendous effort has been put into the electrode research of SIBs, and hard carbon (HC) stands out among the anode materials due to its advantages in cost, resource, industrial processes, and safety. However, different from the application of graphite in LIBs, HC, as a disordered carbon material, leaves more to be completely comprehended about its sodium storage mechanism, and there is still plenty of room for improvement in its capacity, rate performance and cycling performance. This paper reviews the research reports on HC materials in recent years, especially the research process of the sodium storage mechanism and the modification and optimization of HC materials. Finally, the review summarizes the sterling achievements and the challenges on the basis of recent progress, as well as the prospects on the development of HC anode materials in SIBs.

Synthesis of a Novel Electrochemical Probe for the Sensitive and Selective Detection of Biothiols and Its Clinical Applications.

The ability to estimate and quantify biothiols in biological fluids is very significant for attaining a detailed understanding of biothiols-related pathological diseases. Most of the developed methods for biothiols detection are not suitable for this purpose owing to their low sensitivity, poor selectivity, and long experimental procedures. In this study, a novel and simple structure electrochemical probe has been synthesized for the first time for the selective determination of biothiols. The developed probe is based on using 2,4-dinitrobenzenesulfonyl moiety (DNBS) as a selective recognition moiety for biothiols. The electrochemical probe was successfully fabricated through a facile one-step reaction between 2,4-dinitrobenzenesulfonyl chloride (DNBS-Cl) and p-aminophenol. The successful synthesis of the probe was confirmed by using different characterization techniques such as an NMR spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry. Biothiols can selectively cleave the DNBS moiety through an aromatic nucleophilic substitution (ANS) reaction within 10 min to release p-aminophenol, which is a highly electrochemical active molecule that can be selectively detected easily by cyclic voltammetry at low potential. The probe has been employed for the quantification of cysteine, glutathione, and homocysteine with a LOD of 1.50, 3.48, and 4.67 µM, respectively. Excellent recoveries have been achieved in the range of 95.44-98.71% for the determination of the total biothiols in the human plasma sample.

Lucigenin-pyrogallol chemiluminescence for the multiple detection of pyrogallol, cobalt ion, and tyrosinase.

Developing new, cheap, sensitive and selective chemiluminescence (CL) systems with multiple detection properties is still a big challenge for biological and environmental applications. Here, we report a new CL system having multiple detection applications (environmental and biological). The developed lucigenin-pyrogallol system gave an enhancement (190 times) over the conventional lucigenin-H2O2 CL system. Cobalt ion and tyrosinase can inhibit lucigenin-PG CL intensity. Based on these phenomena, we have developed new CL methods for the detection of pyrogallol (LOD = 0.94 µM), lucigenin (LOD = 0.42 µM), cobalt (LOD = 68 nM), and tyrosinase (LOD = 1.8 µg/mL). Furthermore, the developed system gave excellent recoveries in real samples within the range of 93.59-103.12% for the assay of pyrogallol, Co2+ and tyrosinase in coffee, lake water, and human plasma, respectively.

Hydroxylamine-O-sulfonic acid as an efficient coreactant for luminol chemiluminescence for selective and sensitive detection.

Hydroxylamine-O-sulfonic acid, a versatile reagent for organic synthesis, has been explored as an effective coreactant for luminol chemiluminescence. Co(2+) can dramatically enhance the chemiluminescence of this system. The sensitive detection of Co(2+), luminol and HOSA, including highly selective Co(2+) detection, is achieved.