Fertility, mortality, migration, and population scenarios for 195 countries and territories from 2017 to 2100: a forecasting analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study.

BACKGROUND: Understanding potential patterns in future population levels is crucial for anticipating and planning for changing age structures, resource and health-care needs, and environmental and economic landscapes. Future fertility patterns are a key input to estimation of future population size, but they are surrounded by substantial uncertainty and diverging methodologies of estimation and forecasting, leading to important differences in global population projections. Changing population size and age structure might have profound economic, social, and geopolitical impacts in many countries. In this study, we developed novel methods for forecasting mortality, fertility, migration, and population. We also assessed potential economic and geopolitical effects of future demographic shifts. METHODS: We modelled future population in reference and alternative scenarios as a function of fertility, migration, and mortality rates. We developed statistical models for completed cohort fertility at age 50 years (CCF50). Completed cohort fertility is much more stable over time than the period measure of the total fertility rate (TFR). We modelled CCF50 as a time-series random walk function of educational attainment and contraceptive met need. Age-specific fertility rates were modelled as a function of CCF50 and covariates. We modelled age-specific mortality to 2100 using underlying mortality, a risk factor scalar, and an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model. Net migration was modelled as a function of the Socio-demographic Index, crude population growth rate, and deaths from war and natural disasters; and use of an ARIMA model. The model framework was used to develop a reference scenario and alternative scenarios based on the pace of change in educational attainment and contraceptive met need. We estimated the size of gross domestic product for each country and territory in the reference scenario. Forecast uncertainty intervals (UIs) incorporated uncertainty propagated from past data inputs, model estimation, and forecast data distributions. FINDINGS: The global TFR in the reference scenario was forecasted to be 1·66 (95% UI 1·33-2·08) in 2100. In the reference scenario, the global population was projected to peak in 2064 at 9·73 billion (8·84-10·9) people and decline to 8·79 billion (6·83-11·8) in 2100. The reference projections for the five largest countries in 2100 were India (1·09 billion [0·72-1·71], Nigeria (791 million [594-1056]), China (732 million [456-1499]), the USA (336 million [248-456]), and Pakistan (248 million [151-427]). Findings also suggest a shifting age structure in many parts of the world, with 2·37 billion (1·91-2·87) individuals older than 65 years and 1·70 billion (1·11-2·81) individuals younger than 20 years, forecasted globally in 2100. By 2050, 151 countries were forecasted to have a TFR lower than the replacement level (TFR <2·1), and 183 were forecasted to have a TFR lower than replacement by 2100. 23 countries in the reference scenario, including Japan, Thailand, and Spain, were forecasted to have population declines greater than 50% from 2017 to 2100; China's population was forecasted to decline by 48·0% (-6·1 to 68·4). China was forecasted to become the largest economy by 2035 but in the reference scenario, the USA was forecasted to once again become the largest economy in 2098. Our alternative scenarios suggest that meeting the Sustainable Development Goals targets for education and contraceptive met need would result in a global population of 6·29 billion (4·82-8·73) in 2100 and a population of 6·88 billion (5·27-9·51) when assuming 99th percentile rates of change in these drivers. INTERPRETATION: Our findings suggest that continued trends in female educational attainment and access to contraception will hasten declines in fertility and slow population growth. A sustained TFR lower than the replacement level in many countries, including China and India, would have economic, social, environmental, and geopolitical consequences. Policy options to adapt to continued low fertility, while sustaining and enhancing female reproductive health, will be crucial in the years to come. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Forecasting life expectancy, years of life lost, and all-cause and cause-specific mortality for 250 causes of death: reference and alternative scenarios for 2016-40 for 195 countries and territories.

BACKGROUND: Understanding potential trajectories in health and drivers of health is crucial to guiding long-term investments and policy implementation. Past work on forecasting has provided an incomplete landscape of future health scenarios, highlighting a need for a more robust modelling platform from which policy options and potential health trajectories can be assessed. This study provides a novel approach to modelling life expectancy, all-cause mortality and cause of death forecasts -and alternative future scenarios-for 250 causes of death from 2016 to 2040 in 195 countries and territories. METHODS: We modelled 250 causes and cause groups organised by the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) hierarchical cause structure, using GBD 2016 estimates from 1990-2016, to generate predictions for 2017-40. Our modelling framework used data from the GBD 2016 study to systematically account for the relationships between risk factors and health outcomes for 79 independent drivers of health. We developed a three-component model of cause-specific mortality: a component due to changes in risk factors and select interventions; the underlying mortality rate for each cause that is a function of income per capita, educational attainment, and total fertility rate under 25 years and time; and an autoregressive integrated moving average model for unexplained changes correlated with time. We assessed the performance by fitting models with data from 1990-2006 and using these to forecast for 2007-16. Our final model used for generating forecasts and alternative scenarios was fitted to data from 1990-2016. We used this model for 195 countries and territories to generate a reference scenario or forecast through 2040 for each measure by location. Additionally, we generated better health and worse health scenarios based on the 85th and 15th percentiles, respectively, of annualised rates of change across location-years for all the GBD risk factors, income per person, educational attainment, select intervention coverage, and total fertility rate under 25 years in the past. We used the model to generate all-cause age-sex specific mortality, life expectancy, and years of life lost (YLLs) for 250 causes. Scenarios for fertility were also generated and used in a cohort component model to generate population scenarios. For each reference forecast, better health, and worse health scenarios, we generated estimates of mortality and YLLs attributable to each risk factor in the future. FINDINGS: Globally, most independent drivers of health were forecast to improve by 2040, but 36 were forecast to worsen. As shown by the better health scenarios, greater progress might be possible, yet for some drivers such as high body-mass index (BMI), their toll will rise in the absence of intervention. We forecasted global life expectancy to increase by 4·4 years (95% UI 2·2 to 6·4) for men and 4·4 years (2·1 to 6·4) for women by 2040, but based on better and worse health scenarios, trajectories could range from a gain of 7·8 years (5·9 to 9·8) to a non-significant loss of 0·4 years (-2·8 to 2·2) for men, and an increase of 7·2 years (5·3 to 9·1) to essentially no change (0·1 years [-2·7 to 2·5]) for women. In 2040, Japan, Singapore, Spain, and Switzerland had a forecasted life expectancy exceeding 85 years for both sexes, and 59 countries including China were projected to surpass a life expectancy of 80 years by 2040. At the same time, Central African Republic, Lesotho, Somalia, and Zimbabwe had projected life expectancies below 65 years in 2040, indicating global disparities in survival are likely to persist if current trends hold. Forecasted YLLs showed a rising toll from several non-communicable diseases (NCDs), partly driven by population growth and ageing. Differences between the reference forecast and alternative scenarios were most striking for HIV/AIDS, for which a potential increase of 120·2% (95% UI 67·2-190·3) in YLLs (nearly 118 million) was projected globally from 2016-40 under the worse health scenario. Compared with 2016, NCDs were forecast to account for a greater proportion of YLLs in all GBD regions by 2040 (67·3% of YLLs [95% UI 61·9-72·3] globally); nonetheless, in many lower-income countries, communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional (CMNN) diseases still accounted for a large share of YLLs in 2040 (eg, 53·5% of YLLs [95% UI 48·3-58·5] in Sub-Saharan Africa). There were large gaps for many health risks between the reference forecast and better health scenario for attributable YLLs. In most countries, metabolic risks amenable to health care (eg, high blood pressure and high plasma fasting glucose) and risks best targeted by population-level or intersectoral interventions (eg, tobacco, high BMI, and ambient particulate matter pollution) had some of the largest differences between reference and better health scenarios. The main exception was sub-Saharan Africa, where many risks associated with poverty and lower levels of development (eg, unsafe water and sanitation, household air pollution, and child malnutrition) were projected to still account for substantive disparities between reference and better health scenarios in 2040. INTERPRETATION: With the present study, we provide a robust, flexible forecasting platform from which reference forecasts and alternative health scenarios can be explored in relation to a wide range of independent drivers of health. Our reference forecast points to overall improvements through 2040 in most countries, yet the range found across better and worse health scenarios renders a precarious vision of the future-a world with accelerating progress from technical innovation but with the potential for worsening health outcomes in the absence of deliberate policy action. For some causes of YLLs, large differences between the reference forecast and alternative scenarios reflect the opportunity to accelerate gains if countries move their trajectories toward better health scenarios-or alarming challenges if countries fall behind their reference forecasts. Generally, decision makers should plan for the likely continued shift toward NCDs and target resources toward the modifiable risks that drive substantial premature mortality. If such modifiable risks are prioritised today, there is opportunity to reduce avoidable mortality in the future. However, CMNN causes and related risks will remain the predominant health priority among lower-income countries. Based on our 2040 worse health scenario, there is a real risk of HIV mortality rebounding if countries lose momentum against the HIV epidemic, jeopardising decades of progress against the disease. Continued technical innovation and increased health spending, including development assistance for health targeted to the world's poorest people, are likely to remain vital components to charting a future where all populations can live full, healthy lives. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Interfacial Engineering of Hierarchical Transition Metal Oxide Heterostructures for Highly Sensitive Sensing of Hydrogen Peroxide.

Hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2 ) is a major messenger molecule in cellular signal transduction. Direct detection of H2 O2 in complex environments provides the capability to illuminate its various biological functions. With this in mind, a novel electrochemical approach is here proposed by integrating a series of CoO nanostructures on CuO backbone at electrode interfaces. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrate successful formation of core-shell CuO-CoO hetero-nanostructures. Theoretical calculations further confirm energy-favorable adsorption of H2 O2 on surface sites of CuO-CoO heterostructures. Contributing to the efficient electron transfer path and enhanced capture of H2 O2 in the unique leaf-like CuO-CoO hierarchical 3D interface, an optimal biosensor-based CuO-CoO-2.5 h electrode exhibits an ultrahigh sensitivity (6349 µA m m-1 cm-2 ), excellent selectivity, and a wide detection range for H2 O2 , and is capable of monitoring endogenous H2 O2 derived from human lung carcinoma cells A549. The synergistic effects for enhanced H2 O2 adsorption in integrated CuO-CoO nanostructures and performance of the sensor suggest a potential for exploring pathological and physiological roles of reactive oxygen species like H2 O2 in biological systems.

Three-Dimensional Hierarchical Architectures Derived from Surface-Mounted Metal-Organic Framework Membranes for Enhanced Electrocatalysis.

Inspired by the rapid development of metal-organic-framework-derived materials in various applications, a facile synthetic strategy was developed for fabrication of 3D hierarchical nanoarchitectures. A surface-mounted metal-organic framework membrane was pyrolyzed at a range of temperatures to produce catalysts with excellent trifunctional electrocatalytic efficiencies for the oxygen reduction, hydrogen evolution, and oxygen evolution reactions.

The catalytic effect of TiO2 nanosheets on extracellular electron transfer of Shewanella loihica PV-4.

Electron transfer kinetics of Shewanella loihica PV-4 at the up-growing TiO2 nanosheet (TiO2-NS) modified carbon paper (CP) electrode was investigated. The effect of TiO2-NSs, which speeds up the interfacial electron transfer of outer membrane c-type cytochromes (OMCs), was revealed for the first time. TiO2-NSs with a polar surface modified hydrophobic CP into super-hydrophilic TiO2-NS/CP. The favorable interaction between PV-4 and TiO2-NSs not only enhanced microbial adhesion, but also altered the redox nature of OMCs. The mid-point potential of OMCs at TiO2-NS/CP was shifted to a more negative potential, indicating a higher thermodynamic driving force for the protein to release electrons. Moreover, electron transfer from OMCs to TiO2-NSs was also benefited from the positive shift of flat-band potential Vfb owing to reduced pH at the electrode/microorganism interface, as well as good electrical conductivity of TiO2-NSs. As a result, the electron transfer rate constant ket of OMCs at the TiO2-NS/CP anode was about three times faster than that at the CP anode. The accelerated electron transfer kinetics as well as 15% increase of biomass together accounted for a 97% increase of the maximum output power density in the MFC. The result expanded our knowledge about the role of a designed TiO2 nanostructure in microbial electron transfer that can be applied in other bio-electrochemical systems.

Fabrication and enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity of fluorine doped TiO2 by loaded with Ag.

F-doped TiO2 loaded with Ag (Ag/F-TiO2) was prepared by sol-gel process combined with photoreduction method. The physical and chemical properties of the prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and photoluminescence (PL). XPS analysis indicated Ag species existed as Ag0 in the structure of Ag/F-TiO2 samples. UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra showed that the light absorption of Ag/F-TiO2 in the visible region had a significant enhancement compared with the F-doped TiO2 (F-TiO2). PL analysis indicated that the electron-hole recombination rate had been effectively inhibited when Ag loaded on the surface of F-TiO2. The photocatalytic activities of the samples were evaluated for the degradation of X-3B (Reactive Brilliant Red dye, C.I. reactive red 2) under visible light (lambda > 420 nm) irradiation. Compared with F-TiO2, the sample of 0.50 Ag/F-TiO2 showed the highest photocatalytic activity. The interaction between F species and metallic Ag was responsible for improving the visible light photocatalytic activity.

Nanoscale structural engineering via phase segregation: Au-Ge system.

A tunable structural engineering of nanowires based on template-assisted alloying and phase segregation processes is demonstrated. The Au-Ge system, which has a low eutectic temperature and negligible solid solubility (<10(-3) atom %) of Au in Ge at low temperatures, is utilized. Depending on the Au concentration of the initial nanowires, final structures ranging from nearly periodic nanodisk patterns to core/shell and fully alloyed nanowires are produced. The formation mechanisms are discussed in detail and characterized by in situ transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive spectrometry analyses. Electrical measurements illustrate the metallic and semiconducting characteristics of the fully alloyed and alternating Au/Ge nanodisk structures, respectively.

Reversible pH manipulation of the fluorescence emission from sectorial poly(amido amine) dendrimers.

The first to fourth generation (G1-G4) of sectorial poly(amido amine) (PAMAM) dendrimers with ethanolamine core and amino terminals are synthesized by a divergent route. Blue fluorescence emission from these dendrimers is observed. It is found that there is a remarkable difference in the fluorescence behavior for these different generations of dendrimers. The emission intensity of these dendrimers is almost linearly enhanced along with the increase of their concentrations. A significant pH-dependent profile of the fluorescence intensity is also observed. As the pH value decreases from 8 to 3, the fluorescence intensity increases almost linearly. Furthermore, the fluorescence intensity of the dendrimers shows a reversible behavior depending on pH value within the pH range from 3 to 11. This property enables the reversible manipulation of the fluorescence of these dendrimers by adjusting the pH values, which contributes to a potential application of these materials in fluorescent pH sensors.

Magnetically separable composite photocatalyst with enhanced photocatalytic activity.

A novel magnetically separable composite photocatalyst, anatase titania-coated magnetic activated carbon (TMAC), was prepared in this article. In the synthesis, magnetic activated carbon (MAC) was firstly obtained by adsorbing magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles onto the activated carbon (AC), and then the obtained MAC was directly coated by anatase titania nanoparticles prepared at low temperature (i.e. 75 degrees C). The prepared samples were characterized by XRD, SEM and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The composite photocatalyst can be easily separated from solution by a magnet, its photocatalytic activity in degradation of phenol in aqueous solution also has dramatic enhancement compared to that of the neat titania.

Identification and determination of microcystins in source water and waterbloom sample from Meiliang Bay, Taihu Lake, China.

OBJECTIVE: To identify and determine the congener and level of microcystins in the source water of Taihu Lake. METHODS: Improved method of SPE combined with HPLC was employed to detect the concentration and varieties of microcystins in source water and bloom samples collected from Meiliang Bay, Taihu Lake. RESULTS: The contents of two predominant microcystin components, MC-RR, and MC-LR, were relatively high in samples during warm months and correlated with the phase of algae growth. The maximum concentrations of MC-RR and MC-LR in water sample reached 3.09 +/- 0.53 microg/L and 2.39 +/- 0.41 microg/L during the period of water bloom in September 2004, respectively. Even without waterbloom, the concentration of MC-LR in source water sample was still higher than the guideline value. CONCLUSION: The status of microcystin pollution in this region is serious and measures to monitor and control the growth of cyanobacteria are urgently needed.

Preparation of vertically oriented TiO2 nanosheets modified carbon paper electrode and its enhancement to the performance of MFCs.

A unique vertically oriented TiO2 nanosheets (TiO2-NSs) layer was synthesized in situ on the surface of a carbon paper (CP) electrode via hydrothermal synthesis upon addition of a suitable amount of activated carbon powders in a reactor. Field emission scanning electron microscopy images showed that the nanosheets were about 2 µm in length, 200-600 nm in width and 15 nm in thickness. X-ray diffraction and Raman patterns verified TiO2-NSs crystallized in the anatase phase. The electrochemical activities of CP and TiO2-NSs/CP electrode have been investigated by cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The maximum power output density of a mixed consortia inoculated microbial fuel cell was increased by 63% upon using TiO2-NSs/CP as a bioanode compared with that using bare CP as a bioanode. The performance improvement could be ascribed to unique 3D open porous interface made of vertically oriented TiO2-NSs, which provides good biocompatibility, favorable mass transport process, large surface areas for adhension of bacteria and direct pathways for electron movement to the electrode.

Effects of a bolaamphiphile on the structure of phosphatidylcholine liposomes.

This paper describes the morphological characterization of aqueous dispersions of PC amphiphiles and bolaamphiphile AEC by microscopy, the liposomal membrane fluidity, and the zeta potential. Results indicate that the bolaamphiphile AEC can be included within conventional egg-PC liposome bilayers. This behavior could be due to their preference for the stretched conformation within the PC membranes.

Calculation method of quantum efficiency to TiO2 nanocrystal photocatalysis reaction.

The quantum yield is an important factor to evaluate the efficiency of photoreactor. This article gives an overall calculation method of the quantum efficiency(phi) and the apparent quantum efficiency(phi a) to the TiO2/UV photocatalysis system. Furthermore, for the immobility system (IS), the formulation of the faction of light absorbed by the TiO2 thin film is proposed so as to calculate the quantum efficiency by using the measured value and theoretic calculated value of transmissivity (T). For the suspension system(SS), due to the difficulty to obtain the absorption coefficient (alpha) of TiO2 particulates, the quantum efficiency is calculated by means of the relative photonic efficiency (zeta r) and the standard quantum yield (phi standard).

Neuronal adaptation translates stimulus gaps into a population code.

Neurons in sensory pathways exhibit a vast multitude of adaptation behaviors, which are assumed to aid the encoding of temporal stimulus features and provide the basis for a population code in higher brain areas. Here we study the transition to a population code for auditory gap stimuli both in neurophysiological recordings and in a computational network model. Independent component analysis (ICA) of experimental data from the inferior colliculus of Mongolian gerbils reveals that the network encodes different gap sizes primarily with its population firing rate within 30 ms after the presentation of the gap, where longer gap size evokes higher network activity. We then developed a computational model to investigate possible mechanisms of how to generate the population code for gaps. Phenomenological (ICA) and functional (discrimination performance) analyses of our simulated networks show that the experimentally observed patterns may result from heterogeneous adaptation, where adaptation provides gap detection at the single neuron level and neuronal heterogeneity ensures discriminable population codes for the whole range of gap sizes in the input. Furthermore, our work suggests that network recurrence additionally enhances the network's ability to provide discriminable population patterns.

Bio-inspired vapor-responsive colloidal photonic crystal patterns by inkjet printing.

Facile, fast, and cost-effective technology for patterning of responsive colloidal photonic crystals (CPCs) is of great importance for their practical applications. In this report, we develop a kind of responsive CPC patterns with multicolor shifting properties by inkjet printing mesoporous colloidal nanoparticle ink on both rigid and soft substrates. By adjusting the size and mesopores' proportion of nanoparticles, we can precisely control the original color and vapor-responsive color shift extent of mesoporous CPC. As a consequence, multicolor mesoporous CPCs patterns with complex vapor responsive color shifts or vapor-revealed implicit images are subsequently achieved. The complicated and reversible multicolor shifts of mesoporous CPC patterns are favorable for immediate recognition by naked eyes but hard to copy. This approach is favorable for integration of responsive CPCs with controllable responsive optical properties. Therefore, it is of great promise for developing advanced responsive CPC devices such as anticounterfeiting devices, multifunctional microchips, sensor arrays, or dynamic displays.

Recurrent coupling improves discrimination of temporal spike patterns.

Despite the ubiquitous presence of recurrent synaptic connections in sensory neuronal systems, their general functional purpose is not well understood. A recent conceptual advance has been achieved by theories of reservoir computing in which recurrent networks have been proposed to generate short-term memory as well as to improve neuronal representation of the sensory input for subsequent computations. Here, we present a numerical study on the distinct effects of inhibitory and excitatory recurrence in a canonical linear classification task. It is found that both types of coupling improve the ability to discriminate temporal spike patterns as compared to a purely feed-forward system, although in different ways. For a large class of inhibitory networks, the network's performance is optimal as long as a fraction of roughly 50% of neurons per stimulus is active in the resulting population code. Thereby the contribution of inactive neurons to the neural code is found to be even more informative than that of the active neurons, generating an inherent robustness of classification performance against temporal jitter of the input spikes. Excitatory couplings are found to not only produce a short-term memory buffer but also to improve linear separability of the population patterns by evoking more irregular firing as compared to the purely inhibitory case. As the excitatory connectivity becomes more sparse, firing becomes more variable, and pattern separability improves. We argue that the proposed paradigm is particularly well-suited as a conceptual framework for processing of sensory information in the auditory pathway.

Study on photocatalytic performance and degradation kinetics of X-3B with lanthanide-modified titanium dioxide under solar and UV illumination.

The present work was focused on photocatalytic oxidation of the model molecule reactive brilliant X-3B by lanthanide-modified TiO(2) samples under artificial solar and UV irradiation. Experimental results showed that the TiO(2) samples doping with lanthanide (Ce and Gd) could greatly enhance the activity of pure TiO(2), and could extend the absorption range to visible region. The optimum doping amount was 0.2 and 0.5at.% for Ce- and Gd-doped TiO(2) particles, respectively. The degradation kinetics of X-3B on Ce-doped TiO(2), Gd-doped TiO(2), and pure TiO(2) were studied as well. The results exhibited that the degradation of X-3B on all the samples were in accordance with the first-order model. The trend of apparent reaction rate constants k(app) was as follows, Gd-doped TiO(2)>Ce-doped TiO(2)>pure TiO(2), under solar illumination. Scatchard plot analysis was used to evaluate the adsorption phenomena of as-prepared samples, and it indicated that lanthanide doping can improve the efficiency of interfacial adsorption of TiO(2) samples. The trend was the same as that of photocatalytic activity.

A simple method to prepare N-doped titania hollow spheres with high photocatalytic activity under visible light.

N-doped titania hollow spheres were prepared using hydrothermally prepared carbon spheres as template. The prepared hollow spheres were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectrum (DRS). The photocatalytic activity of as-prepared hollow titania spheres was determined by degradation of Reactive Brilliant Red dye X-3B (C.I. reactive red 2) under visible light irradiation, and was compared to commercial P25 titania. It was revealed that the photocatalytic activity of the titania hollow spheres enhanced a lot. The apparent rate constant of the titania hollow spheres was almost 17 times as that of P25 titania.

A simple route for the preparation of Eu, N-codoped TiO2 nanoparticles with enhanced visible light-induced photocatalytic activity.

A simple route has been developed for the synthesis of europium, nitrogen-codoped titania photocatalysts under mild conditions (i.e., low temperature, < or = 348 K, and ambient pressure). The as-prepared photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) analyses. The results showed that the codoped photocatalyst with a spheroidal shape exhibited a smaller size than the undoped titania. The transformation from anatase to rutile was suppressed by doping with Eu and N atoms. Furthermore, the absorbance spectra of Eu, N-codoped TiO(2) exhibited a significant red shift to the visible region. The photocatalytic activity of Eu, N-codoped TiO(2) was evaluated by photodegradation of the dye reactive brilliant red X-3B under visible light. This codoped sample exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity compared to N-doped TiO(2), pure TiO(2), and P25.

Deposition of anatase titania onto carbon encapsulated magnetite nanoparticles.

A novel magnetically separable photocatalyst (titania-coated carbon encapsulated magnetite: TCCEF) was prepared. The prepared composite photocatalyst was characterized with an x-ray diffractometer (XRD), a transmission electron microscope (TEM), a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR) and a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The photocatalytic activity of the samples was determined by degrading model contaminated water, a phenol aqueous solution. The results were compared with single-phase titania (pure titania and Degussa P25) and Fe(3)O(4)/TiO(2), and enhanced photocatalytic activity was obtained. It is suggested that the enhanced photocatalytic activity is ascribed to two major factors. First, the encapsulation of magnetite into the carbon layer may inhibit the direct electrical contact of titania and magnetite, hence preventing the photodissolution of the iron oxide phase. Second, the enhanced hydroxyl groups on TCCEF may inhibit the recombination of electron-hole pairs. On the other hand, the magnetic photocatalyst can be easily recovered from a slurry with the application of an external magnetic field.