Butt, Faheem K.

Hammouda, Samia Ben

Idrees, Faryal

English

Institutional Repository of Leibniz Universität Hannover

catalystsEditorialProgression in Photocatalytic Materials for Efficient PerformanceFaryal Idrees 1,2,* , Faheem K. Butt 3 and Samia Ben Hammouda 1Citation: Idrees, F.; Butt, F.K.;Hammouda, S.B. Progression inPhotocatalytic Materials for EfficientPerformance. Catalysts 2021, 11, 472.https://doi.org/10.3390/catal11040472Received: 29 March 2021Accepted: 29 March 2021Published: 6 April 2021Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutralwith regard to jurisdictional claims inpublished maps and institutional affil-iations.Copyright: © 2021 by the authors.Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.This article is an open access articledistributed under the terms andconditions of the Creative CommonsAttribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).1 Institut für Technische Chemie, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover, Callinstrasse 3,D-30167 Hannover, Germany; benhammouda@iftc.uni-hannover.de2 Department of Physics, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54000, Pakistan3 Division of Science and Technology, University of Education Lahore, Lahore 54000, Pakistan;faheemk.butt@ue.edu.pk* Correspondence: mermaidinaqua@hotmail.comPhotocatalysis is a highly promising technique to address the challenges of envi-ronmental and energy aspects. TiO2 is currently in commercial use, but due to its widebandgap, it is limited to UV region which is 5% of total solar energy spectrum. More-over, the fast recombination rates of photo-generated charge carriers have also limitedits photocatalytic efficiency. Substantial efforts have been made over the past few yearsto engineer various semiconductor photocatalysts. Numerous strategies have been em-ployed to improve photocatalytic efficiency by tuning the bandgap such as developingtype-II and Z-scheme, lowering the recombination rate, increase the surface kinetics, etc.The main objectives of this special issue are to cover challenges and recent progresses inengineering/designing, synthesis, characterization and establishing efficient/advancedphotocatalytic systems which are addressed in this special issue of Catalysts through sev-eral examples. The two review articles and six research articles were published addressingthe photocatalytic activity of Metal halide perovskites, Aeroxide P25 (ATiO2), black TiO2,Sachtleben Hombikat UV100 (HTiO2), CoO@meso–CN@MoS2, and Pt nanowire-anchoreddodecahedral Ag3PO4, etc.The first review article, by Bianca-Maria Bresolin et al. [1], presented a detailed reviewon metal halide perovskite-based materials and focused on their recent advancementsand progresses as potential photocatalyst. Metal halide perovskites (MHPs), due to theirfacile synthesis and excellent optoelectronic properties, have gained a lot of attention.They have summarized recent progresses of all-inorganic MHPs and hybrid organic-inorganic MHPs [1]. The second review article, by Yuan Yao et al. [2], provided a detailedreview of the most important commercial process, i.e. photocatalytic reforming of organiccompounds into hydrogen. This process is sustainable and converts the stored solar energyinto chemical energy. Therefore, in relevant areas this review presents the summary of thereported works that are categorized by reforming precursors of organic compound such asbiomass, ethanol, and methanol, etc. [2].Al-Madanat et al. [3], presents a work on photocatalytic production of H2 fromNaphthalene by using two photocatalysts of commercial TiO2: Sachtleben HombikatUV100 (HTiO2) and Aeroxide P25 (ATiO2). They studied the Pt loading impacts to checkefficiency in production of H2 from an aqueous solution of naphthalene for differentratios and formation of intermediates. The nanosized-Pto particles were characterizedby physicochemical characterization that further confirmed a well dispersion of particleson photocatalysts surface under study and hence the higher photocatalytic activity wasreported for Pt-HTiO2.Sun, Ke, et al. [4], designed reactive structures of novel push–pull chromophores thatwere capable of efficient free radical polymerization of acrylates initiated with LEDs emit-ting at 405 nm. To design multi-component photoinitiating systems, their applications inthe fabrication of photocomposites and vat photo-polymerization (or 3D-printed structures)as efficient photoinitiators were also studied to choose eleven new push–pull dyes.Catalysts 2021, 11, 472. https://doi.org/10.3390/catal11040472 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/catalystsCatalysts 2021, 11, 472 2 of 3Dai, Yujie, et al. [5], articulated necessary asymmetric photocatalytic reactions to ob-serve the mechanism of the asymmetric electromagnetic interaction between molecules andlight. For this they investigated the electromagnetic interactions between the chiral reactionof PM567 dye and the light-induced charge transfer reaction. For different wave-lengthranges, the chiral responses of molecules were found due to presence of binaphthalene andpyrromethene. The first-principles investigation was found complete and self-consistent.Chen, Linjer, et al. [6], developed effective and simple synthetic approach to synthesizeuniform CoO@meso–CN@MoS2 heterostructures to study the photodegradation under avisible light for organic pollutants. Heterostructure established between CoO@meso–CNand MoS2 were confirmed by numerous morphological and physicochemical characteriza-tions techniques. The photocatalytic response of hybrid heterostructure was found to behigher than pure MoS2.Zhang, Xu, et al. [7] articulated a photocatalytic degradation of chlorophyll-a byusing a black TiO2 in algae cells with modified carbon (b-N-TiO2/C) and doped nitrogensynthesized by sol-gel technique. The highly efficient degradation was observed due tosurficial defects introduced by nitrogen doping and a fast-synergistic effect due to modifiedcarbon. Moreover, photocatalysis degradation was also promoted by the addition of H2O2.In this O2− and OH were identified as the major reactive species on the bases of electronspin resonance (ESR) and the trapping experiments.Zhu, Hanxu, et al. [8], constructed a Pt nanowire-anchored dodecahedral Ag3PO4{110}to study anti-photocorrosion and organics photodegradation. Morphological and structuralanalysis of the Pt nanowires confirmed that they were attached on dodecahedral Ag3PO4and completely bounded by {110} facets. Schottky barrier is developed by this construc-tion and transfer rate of photogenerated electrons becomes faster. This construction alsoextended the lifetime of the charge carriers with the help of long-distance transport fororganics degradation. More importantly, the reduction potentials of the photogeneratedelectrons were improved by the Pt nanowires for O2 reduction to O2−, which improvedanti-photocorrosion properties and the photocatalytic activity of Ag3PO4. Electron param-agnetic resonance (EPR) analysis and radical trapping experiments demonstrated that fororganics photodegradation the main active species were holes.This collection shows how great in number and convoluted the research topics relatedto the photocatalysis are. In addition, in future visible light-induced heterostructure-basedphotocatalyst can be designed for a highly efficient photocatalytic response.Author Contributions: Draft Preparation by F.I., Editing by F.K.B. and Visualization by S.B.H. Allauthors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.Funding: Alexander Von Humboldt, NRPU7435 HEC project, PSF-NSFC-IV/Phy/P-PU(31).Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.References1. Bresolin, B.M.; Park, Y.; Bahnemann, D.W. Recent progresses on metal halide perovskite-based material as potential photocatalyst.Catalysts 2020, 10, 709. [CrossRef]2. Yao, Y.; Gao, X.; Li, Z.; Meng, X. Photocatalytic reforming for hydrogen evolution: A review. Catalysts 2020, 10, 335. [CrossRef]3. Al-Madanat, O.; AlSalka, Y.; Dillert, R.; Bahnemann, D.W. Photocatalytic H2 Production from Naphthalene by Various TiO2Photocatalysts: Impact of Pt Loading and Formation of Intermediates. Catalysts 2021, 11, 107. [CrossRef]4. Sun, K.; Liu, S.; Pigot, C.; Brunel, D.; Graff, B.; Nechab, M.; Gigmes, D.; Morlet-Savary, F.; Zhang, Y.; Xiao, P. Novel Push–PullDyes Derived from 1H-cyclopenta [b] naphthalene-1, 3 (2H)-dione as Versatile Photoinitiators for Photopolymerization and TheirRelated Applications: 3D Printing and Fabrication of Photocomposites. Catalysts 2020, 10, 1196. [CrossRef]5. Dai, Y.; Lu, C.; Liang, L.; Feng, N.; Wang, J. Visible Light Electromagnetic Interaction of PM567 Chiral Dye for AsymmetricPhotocatalysis, a First-Principles Investigation. Catalysts 2020, 10, 882. [CrossRef]6. Chen, L.; Nguyen, T.B.; Lin, Y.L.; Wu, C.H.; Chang, J.H.; Chen, C.W.; Dong, C.D. Enhanced Heterogeneous Photodegradation ofOrganic Pollutants by a Visible Light Harvesting CoO@ meso–CN@ MoS2 Nanocomposites. Catalysts 2020, 10, 722. [CrossRef]Catalysts 2021, 11, 472 3 of 37. Zhang, X.; Cai, M.; Cui, N.; Chen, G.; Zou, G.; Zhou, L. One-Step Synthesis of bN-TiO2/C Nanocomposites with High VisibleLight Photocatalytic Activity to Degrade Microcystis aeruginosa. Catalysts 2020, 10, 579. [CrossRef]8. Zhu, H.; Ji, Y.; Chen, L.; Bian, W.; Wang, J. Pt Nanowire-Anchored Dodecahedral Ag3PO4 {110} Constructed for SignificantEnhancement of Photocatalytic Activity and Anti-Photocorrosion Properties: Spatial Separation of Charge Carriers and Photogen-erated Electron Utilization. Catalysts 2020, 10, 206. [CrossRef]

Progression in Photocatalytic Materials for Efficient Performance

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Progression in Photocatalytic Materials for Efficient Performance

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