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Nanostructures in Photocatalysis: Opportunities and Challenges for Environmental Applications

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Nanostructured Materials for Environmental Applications

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Abstract

Photocatalysis can be a futuristic process for energy production and environmental remediation applications. It deals with applications such as H2 production from water and biomass; CO2 conversion into hydrocarbon fuels; degradation of various categories of pollutants such as dyes, pharmaceutical pollutants, polymeric pollutants, organic toxic pollutants, and N2 conversion into NH3; heavy metal reduction; antimicrobial activities; etc. However, the key effectiveness of these applications is directly associated with the photocatalytic materials. Therefore, the development of photocatalytic materials with required functionalities is the key in this photocatalysis process. In this direction, the fabrication of photocatalytic materials at nanoscale governs various properties of photocatalysts that include high surface area, rich active sites, dimensional dependent properties, high quantum yield, etc. However, it should also be noted that the control of dimension and morphology at nanoscale could also lead to some negative effects in photocatalysis. For instance, the decrement in particle size could lead to blue shift in the optical properties, i.e., the increment in the bandgap energy. On the other hand, the quantum confinement in the nanoscale materials also helps tuning the band structure of a photocatalyst, which is one of the deciding parameters of the photocatalytic process of the respective photocatalyst. In this context, this chapter discusses the various methods for the synthesis of nanostructured photocatalytic materials and their efficacies in various photocatalytic applications as above listed.

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Acknowledgments

One of the authors, MS, gratefully acknowledges the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, for the funding support through the DST-INSPIRE Faculty Award [DST/INSPIRE/04/2016/002227, 14-02-2017].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Yogi Vemana University, Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, India

    Y. V. Divyasri & N. C. Gangi Reddy

  2. Centre for Nano and Material Sciences, Jain University, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

    Y. N. Teja & Sakar Mohan

  3. Nanocatalysis and Solar Fuels Research Laboratory, Department of Materials Science & Nanotechnology, Yogi Vemana University, Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, India

    V. Nava Koteswara Rao, M. Mamatha Kumari & M. V. Shankar

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  1. Y. V. Divyasri
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  1. NCNSNT, University of Madras, Chennai, India

    Subramanian Balakumar

  2. ICPEES, University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg Cedex 2, France

    Valérie Keller

  3. Department of Materials Science and Nanotech, Yogi Vemana University, Vemanapuram, Andhra Pradesh, India

    M.V. Shankar

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Divyasri, Y.V. et al. (2021). Nanostructures in Photocatalysis: Opportunities and Challenges for Environmental Applications. In: Balakumar, S., Keller, V., Shankar, M. (eds) Nanostructured Materials for Environmental Applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72076-6_1

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