A review on photocatalysis for air treatment: From catalyst development to reactor design

© 2016. Photocatalysis has been extensively investigated for several decades, motivated by the fascinating applications in pollution remediation, chemical synthesis, and energy innovation. However, the practical/commercial/industrial applications of photocatalysis have been restricted in the field of building materials. The low quantum efficiency in solar energy conversion and limitation of low level of pollutants in photodegradation are very difficult to solve. Air purification by photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) of various pollutants, for example volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or inorganic gaseous (NOx, SOx, CO, H2S and ozone, etc) at reasonably low concentrations, appears to be more feasible for commercialization. This review firstly introduces the removal mechanism of these contaminations by PCO, and then provides detailed survey and discussion on both photocatalysts and reactor design. This paper aims to deliver fundamental and comprehensive information for paving the venue of gas-phase photodegradation to commercialized air purification

From waste Coca Cola® to activated carbons with impressive capabilities for CO2 adsorption and supercapacitors

We herein report the synthesis of heteroatoms doped, high surface area microporous activated carbons (AC) by utilisation of Coca Cola® as a potential source of waste biomass, for applications as CO2 adsorbent and electrodes of supercapacitors. N, S dual doped carbon spheres are firstly obtained by hydrothermal treatment of Coca Cola® and then thermally activated by either KOH or ZnCl2. The resulting KOH activated carbon material (CMC-3) exhibits extremely high adsorption capability for CO2 with 5.22 mmol g−1 at 25 °C and 1 atm, one of the highest values ever recorded for a carbonaceous material. On the other hand, ZnCl2 activated carbon material (CMC-2) performs excellently as an electrode for supercapacitor, exhibiting very high specific capacitance of 352.7 F g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1 in 6 M KOH electrolyte, which again is one of the highest values recorded for a biomass derived AC. Coca Cola® has high content in carbon as sugars, provides in-situ doping of O, N and S and has constant composition, as opposed to other conventional biomass materials, making it an attractive and cheap alternative for synthesis of high performance AC for environmental and energy storage purposes

Metal–Organic-Framework-Derived Nanostructures as Multifaceted Electrodes in Metal–Sulfur Batteries

Metal-sulfur batteries (MSBs) are considered up-and-coming future-generation energy storage systems because of their prominent theoretical energy density. However, the practical applications of MSBs are still hampered by several critical challenges, i.e., the shuttle effects, sluggish redox kinetics, and low conductivity of sulfur species. Recently, benefiting from the high surface area, regulated networks, molecular/atomic-level reactive sites, the metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)-derived nanostructures have emerged as efficient and durable multifaceted electrodes in MSBs. Herein, a timely review is presented on recent advancements in designing MOF-derived electrodes, including fabricating strategies, composition management, topography control, and electrochemical performance assessment. Particularly, the inherent charge transfer, intrinsic polysulfide immobilization, and catalytic conversion on designing and engineering of MOF nanostructures for efficient MSBs are systematically discussed. In the end, the essence of how MOFs’ nanostructures influence their electrochemical properties in MSBs and conclude the future tendencies regarding the construction of MOF-derived electrodes in MSBs is exposed. It is believed that this progress review will provide significant experimental/theoretical guidance in designing and understanding the MOF-derived nanostructures as multifaceted electrodes, thus offering promising orientations for the future development of fast-kinetic and robust MSBs in broad energy fields