Showing papers by "Akira Fujishima published in 2017"
TL;DR: A flexible and inexpensive BDD electrode system was successfully fabricated for monitoring the bioelectric potential changes in plants and was concluded that the plant monitoring system worked well with flexible BDD electrodes.
Abstract: Detecting the bio-potential changes of plants would be useful for monitoring their growth and health in the field. A sensitive plant monitoring system with flexible boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes prepared from BDD powder and resin (Nafion or Vylon-KE1830) was investigated. The properties of the electrodes were compared with those of small BDD plate-type electrodes by monitoring the bioelectric potentials of potted Aloe and hybrid species in the genus Opuntia. While flexible BDD electrodes have wide potential windows, their cyclic voltammograms are different from those of the BDD plate. Further, the potential gap between a pair of electrodes attached to the plants changes as the plants are stimulated artificially with a finger touch, suggesting that the bioelectric potentials in the plant also changed, manifesting as changes in the potential gap between the electrodes. The BDD electrodes were assessed for their response reproducibility to a finger stimulus for 30 days. It was concluded that the plant monitoring system worked well with flexible BDD electrodes. Further, the electrodes were stable, and as reliable as the BDD plate electrodes in this study. Thus, a flexible and inexpensive BDD electrode system was successfully fabricated for monitoring the bioelectric potential changes in plants.
12 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the results of photocatalytic degradation tests at different initial methylene blue concentrations were determined to be 4.6 × 10−2 L µmol−1, and the Langmuir-Hinshelwood rate constant (kLH) was calculated as 2.6 µM min−1.
Abstract: TiO2-coated porous silica glass tubes containing macropores were fabricated and evaluated for their water-purification capacity using aqueous solutions of methylene blue. From the results of photocatalytic degradation tests at different initial methylene blue concentrations, the equilibrium adsorption constant (K) was determined to be 4.6 × 10−2 L µmol−1, and the Langmuir-Hinshelwood rate constant (kLH) was calculated as 2.6 µM min−1. To determine the influence of ions on the efficiency of methylene blue degradation, we examined both Milli-Q water (soft water) and Contrex water (hard water) as solvents, and confirmed the reduced purification for the Contrex solution. It was, therefore, considered that the presence of inorganic salts decreased the photocatalytic efficiency. Furthermore, variations in the methylene blue decomposition ability were observed between anion-free and cation-free Contrex. Finally, we concluded that the efficiency of photocatalytic decomposition of TiO2 was influenced by multiple parameters, including the presence of anions and cations, as well as the solution pH.
7 citations