TY - JOUR
T1 - Laddered type-1 heterojunction
T2 - Harvesting full-solar-spectrum in scavenger free photocatalysis
AU - Lopis, Antony Dasint
AU - Choudhari, K. S.
AU - Sai, Ranajit
AU - Kanakikodi, Kempanna S.
AU - Maradur, Sanjeev P.
AU - Shivashankar, S. A.
AU - Kulkarni, Suresh D.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from (1) SERB, DST, Govt. of India, through the projects SB/S2/CMP-017/2014 and SB/FT/CS-123/2013; (2) Joint Manipal Academy of Higher Education and DST-FIST (Govt. of India) Program via approval letter SR/FST/PSI-174/2012; (3) I-CUP, the Indian Cluster for Ultrafast Photonics, Govt. of India, for funding UV–VIS-NIR spectrophotometer. Antony Dasint Lopis thanks the Directorate of Minorities, Govt. of Karnataka (DOM/FELLOWSHIP/CR-58/2017-18) and Karnataka Science and Technology Promotion Society (DST/KSTePS/Ph.D. Fellowship/PHY-05:2019-20) for the award of Research Fellowship. Authors acknowledge the DST PURSE Laboratory, Mangalore University, Mangalagangotri for FESEM imaging.
Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from (1) SERB, DST, Govt. of India, through the projects SB/S2/CMP-017/2014 and SB/FT/CS-123/2013; (2) Joint Manipal Academy of Higher Education and DST-FIST (Govt. of India) Program via approval letter SR/FST/PSI-174/2012; (3) I-CUP, the Indian Cluster for Ultrafast Photonics, Govt. of India, for funding UV–VIS-NIR spectrophotometer. Antony Dasint Lopis thanks the Directorate of Minorities, Govt. of Karnataka (DOM/FELLOWSHIP/CR-58/2017-18) and Karnataka Science and Technology Promotion Society (DST/KSTePS/Ph.D. Fellowship/PHY-05:2019-20) for the award of Research Fellowship. Authors acknowledge the DST PURSE Laboratory, Mangalore University, Mangalagangotri for FESEM imaging.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 International Solar Energy Society
PY - 2022/7/1
Y1 - 2022/7/1
N2 - Preparation of scavenger free, solar photocatalyst is challenging for large-scale dye-degradation. We report for the first time, a novel solar photocatalyst with laddered type-1 heterojunction. Photocatalyst was realised by selective deposition of a fine ZnO shell onto nanospherical, mesoporous zinc ferrite core using a special two-step microwave-assisted-solvothermal-technique. Synthesis and processing conditions were tuned to harvest entire solar spectrum owing to oxygen vacancies. Under direct sunlight our photocatalyst completely degraded Rhodamine-B without the need for hole scavenger. Scavenging and probing-tests implied the participation of hydroxyl, and superoxide-radicals for Rhodamine-B degradation. NIR light absorption played a vital role in the photodegradation along with the laddered transitions enabled by well positioned bands that avoid recombination. The catalyst was tested for the reproducible activity upto 5 reuse cycles without loss of significant activity. Our approach utilizes (i) direct sunlight (ii) relatively inexpensive and (iii) reusable materials for scavenger free dye degradation and encourages a viable route for ideal solar-photocatalyst.
AB - Preparation of scavenger free, solar photocatalyst is challenging for large-scale dye-degradation. We report for the first time, a novel solar photocatalyst with laddered type-1 heterojunction. Photocatalyst was realised by selective deposition of a fine ZnO shell onto nanospherical, mesoporous zinc ferrite core using a special two-step microwave-assisted-solvothermal-technique. Synthesis and processing conditions were tuned to harvest entire solar spectrum owing to oxygen vacancies. Under direct sunlight our photocatalyst completely degraded Rhodamine-B without the need for hole scavenger. Scavenging and probing-tests implied the participation of hydroxyl, and superoxide-radicals for Rhodamine-B degradation. NIR light absorption played a vital role in the photodegradation along with the laddered transitions enabled by well positioned bands that avoid recombination. The catalyst was tested for the reproducible activity upto 5 reuse cycles without loss of significant activity. Our approach utilizes (i) direct sunlight (ii) relatively inexpensive and (iii) reusable materials for scavenger free dye degradation and encourages a viable route for ideal solar-photocatalyst.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85132725904
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85132725904#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1016/j.solener.2022.05.022
DO - 10.1016/j.solener.2022.05.022
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85132725904
SN - 0038-092X
VL - 240
SP - 57
EP - 68
JO - Solar Energy
JF - Solar Energy
ER -
SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy