Solar-based photocatalytic ozonation employing novel S-scheme ZnO/Cu2O/CuO/carbon xerogel photocatalyst: effect of pH, salinity, turbidity, and temperature on salicylic acid degradation.

This paper proposes the study of a solar-based photocatalytic ozonation process for the degradation of salicylic acid (SA) using a novel S-scheme ZnO/Cu2O/CuO/carbon xerogel photocatalyst. The incorporation of CuO and Cu2O aims to enhance charge mobility through the formation of p-n heterojunctions with ZnO, whereas the carbon xerogel (XC) was selected due to its eco-friendly nature, capacity to stabilize S-scheme heterojunctions as a solid-state electron mediator, and ability to function as a reducing agent under high temperatures. The characterization of the composites demonstrates that the presence of the XC during the calcination step led to the reduction of a fraction of the CuO into Cu2O, forming a ternary semiconductor heterojunction system. In terms of photocatalysis, the XC/ZnO-CuxO 5% composite achieved the best efficiency for salicylic acid degradation, mainly due to the stabilization of the S-scheme charge transfer pathway between the ZnO/CuO/Cu2O semiconductors by the XC. The total organic carbon (TOC) removal during heterogeneous photocatalysis was 80% for the solar-based process and 68% for the visible light process, after 300 min. The solar-based photocatalytic ozonation process was highly successful regarding the degradation of SA, achieving a 75% increase in the apparent reaction rate constant when compared to heterogeneous photocatalysis. Furthermore, a 78% TOC removal was achieved after 150 min, which is half the time required by the heterogeneous photocatalysis to obtain the same result. Temperature, salinity, and turbidity had major effects on the efficiency of the photocatalytic ozonation process; the system's pH did not cause any major performance variation, which holds relevance for industrial applications.

Tunable blue-green-emitting wurtzite ZnS:Mg nanosheet-assembled hierarchical spheres for near-UV white LEDs.

Mg-doped ZnS hierarchical spheres have been synthesized via hydrothermal method using mixed solvents of ethylenediamine and DI water without any surface-active agent. The surface morphology and microstructure studies revealed that the hierarchical spheres were consisted of many well-aligned nanosheets with width 10 nm and length about 50 ~ 100 nm. X-Ray diffraction results show that the ZnS:Mg hierarchical spheres have wurtzite structure with high crystallinity. The absorption edge in the diffuse reflection spectra shifts towards lower wavelength with increasing Mg concentration, indicating an expansion in the bandgap energy that is estimated to be in the range of 3.28 to 3.47 eV. Blue-green photoluminescence with tunable intensity and peak position was observed depending on the Mg content. The Mg2+-activated ZnS phosphor can be good candidates for blue-green components in near-UV white light-emitting diodes.