PHOTOOXIDATION OF ORGANIC WASTES USING SEMICONDUCTOR NANOCLUSTERS
It would be a major boon to have a visible light absorbing semiconductor catalytic material available, which is also photostable and non-toxic. Such a photocatalyst would make it possible to exploit sunlight as the sole energy source required for detoxification. To this end we have employed our expertise in nanocluster synthesis and processing to make and purify nanoparticles of MoS2. The band-gap and absorbance edges of these nanoparticles can be adjusted by particle size based upon the quantum confinement of the electron-hole pair. In a recent paper we demonstrated the use of these new photocatalysts to destroy phenol, and demonstrated a strong effect of size or band-gap on the rate of photo-oxidation.5 In this research we investigate the photooxidation kinetics and products formed for a standard material, Degussa P-25 TiO2, as compared to nanosize TiO2, SnO2, and MoS2. We examined the light intensity dependence for nanosize SnO2 compared to TiO2 (Degussa), and the effect o f size on photooxidation kinetics for both SnO2 and MoS2. We studied photooxidation in aqueous systems and, for the first time, a system consisting almost entirely of a polar organic, acetonitrile. Our primary objective was to develop an entirely new class of material: nanosize semiconductors with visible bandgaps and to engineer these material's properties to allow us to photooxidize toxic organic compounds in water on a reasonable time scale ({approx}8 hrs). A second objective was to study how certain material properties such as size, surface treatment, and material type affect the efficiency of the photocatalytic process as well as optimizing these features.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 828344
- Report Number(s):
- EMSP-55387; R&D Project: EMSP 55387; TRN: US200427%%289
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 31 Dec 2000
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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