This critical review shows the basis of photocatalytic water splitting and experimental points, and surveys heterogeneous photocatalyst materials for water splitting into H2 and O2, and H2 or O2 evolution from an aqueous solution containing a sacrificial reagent Many oxides consisting of metal cations with d0 and d10 configurations, metal (oxy)sulfide and metal (oxy)nitride photocatalysts have been reported, especially during the latest decade The fruitful photocatalyst library gives important information on factors affecting photocatalytic performances and design of new materials Photocatalytic water splitting and H2 evolution using abundant compounds as electron donors are expected to contribute to construction of a clean and simple system for solar hydrogen production, and a solution of global energy and environmental issues in the future (361 references)

Heterogeneous photocatalyst materials for water splitting

Energy harvested directly from sunlight offers a desirable approach toward fulfilling, with minimal environmental impact, the need for clean energy. Solar energy is a decentralized and inexhaustible natural resource, with the magnitude of the available solar power striking the earth’s surface at any one instant equal to 130 million 500 MW power plants.1 However, several important goals need to be met to fully utilize solar energy for the global energy demand. First, the means for solar energy conversion, storage, and distribution should be environmentally benign, i.e. protecting ecosystems instead of steadily weakening them. The next important goal is to provide a stable, constant energy flux. Due to the daily and seasonal variability in renewable energy sources such as sunlight, energy harvested from the sun needs to be efficiently converted into chemical fuel that can be stored, transported, and used upon demand. The biggest challenge is whether or not these goals can be met in a costeffective way on the terawatt scale.2

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/cr1002326

Solar Water Splitting Cells

Boron-doped silicon nanowires (SiNWs) were used to create highly sensitive, real-time electrically based sensors for biological and chemical species. Amine- and oxide-functionalized SiNWs exhibit pH-dependent conductance that was linear over a large dynamic range and could be understood in terms of the change in surface charge during protonation and deprotonation. Biotin-modified SiNWs were used to detect streptavidin down to at least a picomolar concentration range. In addition, antigen-functionalized SiNWs show reversible antibody binding and concentration-dependent detection in real time. Lastly, detection of the reversible binding of the metabolic indicator Ca2+ was demonstrated. The small size and capability of these semiconductor nanowires for sensitive, label-free, real-time detection of a wide range of chemical and biological species could be exploited in array-based screening and in vivo diagnostics.

/pdf/nanowire-nanosensors-for-highly-sensitive-and-selective-4f3aqhtkwe.pdf

Nanowire Nanosensors for Highly Sensitive and Selective Detection of Biological and Chemical Species

Photoinduced reactivity of titanium dioxide

The interest in heterogeneous photocatalysis is intense and increasing, as shown by the number of publications on this theme which regularly appear in this journal, and the fact that over 2000 papers have been published on this topic since 1981. This article is an overview of the field of semiconductor photocatalysis : a brief examination of its roots, achievements and possible future. The semiconductor titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) features predominantly in past and present work on semiconductor photocatalysis; as a result, in the most of the examples selected in this overview to illustrate various points the semiconductor is TiO 2 .

An overview of semiconductor photocatalysis

The excited-state properties of semiconductor electrodes play a crucial role in photoelectrochemistry. Luminescence offers a means for characterizing the electronic structure and excited-state decay routes of semiconductors. From State-of-the-Art Symposium: Electrochemistry, ACS meeting, Kansas City, 1982.

Excited-State Processes of Relevance to Photoelectrochemistry.

The prevalence of LED's and their low cost make LED's ideal for classroom demonstrations or laboratory experiments showing the connection between periodic trends in physical/chemical properties and...

Periodic properties in a family of common semiconductors: Experiments with light emitting diodes

Selective leaching of copper and barium from the yttrium barium copper oxide (YBa2Cu3O7-x) superconductor by chelating diamines

Government, Academic, and Industrial Issues Educational Issues New Directions in the Design of Lithographic Resist Materials: A Case Study High-Conductivity, Solid Polymeric Electrolytes Preceramic Polymers: Past, Present, and Future Molecular Magnets: An Emerging Area of Materials Chemistry Optimization of Microscopic and Macroscopic Second-Order Optical Nonlinearities Materials Chemistry of Organic Monolayer and Multilayer Thin Films Orientation-Dependent NMR Spectroscopy as a Structural Tool for Layered Materials Nanoscale, Two-Dimensional Organic-Inorganic Materials Nanoporous Layered Materials Catalytic Materials Molecular Sieves for Air Separation Nanomaterials: Endosemiconductors and Exosemiconductors Molecule-Based Syntheses of Extended Inorganic Solids Organometallic Chemical Vapor Deposition of Compound Semiconductors: A Chemical Perspective Interfaces, Interfacial Reactions, and Superlattice Reactants Oxide Superconductors Characterization of Complex Materials by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy: A Look at Superconductors with High Critical Temperatures Biomimetic Mineralization Inorganic Biomaterials

Materials chemistry : an emerging discipline : developed from a symposium sponsored by the Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, Inc., at the 204th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., August 23-28, 1992

Materials Overhead nroiector. olaced on its hack. with a mirror arraneed to moiect the imaee'dnto a vertical nroi&tion screen (Fie. 2): . A \" . . Plastic foam (coffee) cup. The base of such cups usually has a rim so that, when inverted, a small amount of liquid can be retained within the base. Pellet of superconducting material (yttrium barium copper oxide, YBazCusO7-,), about 13 mm in diameter by 3 mm thick. (Details on preparation are given below.) 50-mL beaker Test-tube holder Approximately 0.2-L liquid nitrogen Insulated rubber-coated gloves Magnet about 1 mm X 1 mm X 3 mm. A samsrium-eohalt magnet (Edmund Scientific Co.) causes greater levitation than a chip obtained by breaking or core-drilling a typical ceramic-based magnet, because of its higher field strength. Plastic tweezers

Arthur B. Ellis

Papers

Excited-State Processes of Relevance to Photoelectrochemistry.

Periodic properties in a family of common semiconductors: Experiments with light emitting diodes

Selective leaching of copper and barium from the yttrium barium copper oxide (YBa2Cu3O7-x) superconductor by chelating diamines

Materials chemistry : an emerging discipline : developed from a symposium sponsored by the Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, Inc., at the 204th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., August 23-28, 1992

Levitating a magnet using a superconductive material