Efficiently converting methane into valuable chemicals via photocatalysis under mild condition represents a sustainable route to energy storage and value-added manufacture. Despite continued interest in this area, the achievements have been overshadowed by the absence of standardized protocols for conducting photocatalytic methane oxidation experiments as well as evaluating the corresponding performance. In this review, we present a structured solution aimed at addressing these challenges. Firstly, we introduce the norms underlying reactor design and outline various configurations in the gas-solid and gas-solid-liquid reaction systems. This discussion helps choosing the suitable reactors for methane conversion experiments. Subsequently, we offer a comprehensive step-by-step protocol applicable to diverse methane-conversion reactions. Emphasizing meticulous verification and accurate quantification of the products, this protocol highlights the significance of mitigating contamination sources and selecting appropriate detection methods. Lastly, we propose the standardized performance metrics crucial for evaluating photocatalytic methane conversion. By defining these metrics, the community could obtain the consensus of assessing the performance across different studies. Moving forward, the future of photocatalytic methane conversion necessitates further refinement of stringent experimental standards and evaluation criteria. Moreover, development of scalable reactor is essential to facilitate the transition from laboratory proof-of-concept to potentially industrial production.

The pollution of seawater by both biotic (bacteria, viruses) and abiotic contaminants (biocides, pharmaceutical residues) frequently leads to economic losses in aquaculture activities mostly mortality events caused by microbial infection. Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) such as heterogeneous photocatalysis allow the removal of all organic contaminants present in water and therefore could reduce production losses in land-based farms. Oysters in land-based farms such as hatcheries and nurseries suffer from a large number of mortality events, resulting in significant losses. If photocatalysis has been widely studied for the decontamination, its application for disinfection is still overlooked, especially on seawater for viruses. We therefore studied seawater disinfection using the photocatalysis (UV365/TiO2) method in the context of Pacific oyster mortality syndrome (POMS). POMS has been defined as a polymicrobial disease involving an initial viral infection with Ostreid Herpes Virus 1, accompanied by multiple bacterial infections. We investigated the impact of treatment on Vibrio harveyi, a unique opportunistic pathogenic bacterium, and on a complex microbial community reflecting a natural POMS event. Viral inactivation was monitored using experimental infections to determine whether viral particles were still infectious after. Changes in the total bacterial community in seawater were studied by comparing UV365/TiO2 treatment with UV365-irradiated seawater and untreated seawater. In the case of OsHV-1, a 2-h photocatalytic treatment prevents POMS disease and oyster mortality. The same treatment also inactivates 80% of viable Vibrio harveyi culture (c.a. 1.5 log). Since OsHV-1 and Vibrio harveyi are effectively inactivated without long-term destabilization of the total bacterial microbiota in the seawater, photocatalysis appears to be a relevant alternative for disinfecting seawater in land-based oyster beds.

Environmental pollution is a serious threat to human health and the natural environment, and it has aroused widespread concern. One of the most effective processes in the removal of pollutants from wastewater is the Fenton reaction. This process is based on the production of highly reactive •OH radicals due to the rapid reaction between Iron ions and hydrogen peroxide under acidic conditions. The hydroxyl radical has a high oxidation potential of E°(•OH/H2O) = 2.8 V/SHE at acidic pH, so they are extremely reactive and non-selective oxidizing agent towards organic contaminants in wastewater. In order to avoid the drawbacks of a standard Fenton reaction, a photo Fenton reaction has been tested working at neutral pH in water in the removal of refractory pollutants. For the first time, a heterogeneous system was experimented, impregnating porous metakaolin-based geopolymers, obtained by using hydrogen peroxide and vegetable oil in different ratios, as foaming agents, with iron working as photocatalyst. The dirty wastewater as scrubber water (SCRW) and liquid fraction of digestate (LFD) were tested obtaining 40-90% abatement of Total Carbon Content.

(1) Background: An increasing use of pharmaceutics imposes a need for the permanent development of efficient strategies, including the tailoring of highly specific new materials for their removal from the environment. Photocatalytic degradation has been the subject of increasing interest of the researchers in the field. (2) Methods: This paper is focused on the investigation of the possibility to deposit a thin metal layer on a TiO2 surface and study its photocatalytic performance for the degradation of ciprofloxacin using a combination of theoretical and experimental methods. (3) Results: Based on the extensive DFT screening of 24 d-metals\' adhesion on TiO2, Cu was selected for further work, due to the satisfactory expected stability and good availability. The (Cu)TiO2 was successfully synthesized and characterized with XRD, SEM+EDS and UV-Vis spectrophotometry. The uniformly distributed copper on the TiO2 surface corresponds to the binding on high-affinity oxygen-rich sites, as proposed with DFT calculations. The photocatalytic degradation rate of ciprofloxacin was improved by about a factor of 1.5 compared to the bare non-modified TiO2. (4) Conclusions: The observed result was ascribed to the ability of adsorbed Cu to impede the agglomeration of TiO2 and increase the active catalytic area, and bandgap narrowing predicted with DFT calculations.

Covalent triazine frameworks (CTFs) are a class of porous organic polymers that continuously attract growing interest because of their outstanding chemical and physical properties. However, the control of extended porous organic framework structures at the molecular scale for a precise adjustment of their properties has hardly been achieved so far. Here, we present a series of bipyridine-based CTFs synthesized through polycondensation, in which the sequence of specific building blocks is well controlled. The reported synthetic strategy allows us to tailor the physicochemical features of the CTF materials, including the nitrogen content, the apparent specific surface area, and optoelectronic properties. Based on a comprehensive analytical investigation, we demonstrate a direct correlation of the CTF bipyridine content with the material features such as the specific surface area, band gap, charge separation, and surface wettability with water. The entirety of these parameters dictates the catalytic activity as demonstrated for the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The material with the optimal balance between optoelectronic properties and highest hydrophilicity enables HER production rates of up to 7.2 mmol/(h·g) under visible light irradiation and in the presence of a platinum cocatalyst.

The photocatalytic property of Fe oxide minerals has long been considered to play an important role in shaping modern terrestrial environments. However, due to the complexity of natural settings, a precise determination of the band structure of natural goethite has not been achieved. In this work, the mineralogical characteristics of natural goethite samples obtained from Zhushan, China, were systematically studied through X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy, and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. Afterward, the band structure for both natural and synthetic goethite samples was determined by synchrotron-based X-ray absorption and emission spectra and photoelectron spectroscopy. The band gap of natural goethite (2.25 eV) was narrower than that of its synthetic counterpart (2.55 eV), and the valence band position of natural goethite was slightly lifted (-5.06 eV) compared to that of synthetic goethite (-5.38 eV). Al doping in natural goethite crystal, as revealed by the mineralogical tests, was the main reason that contributed to this difference. The theoretical calculation showed the narrowed band gap was caused by the contribution of Al-2p orbits at the top of the valence band. Therefore, free electrons can be created under light irradiation with a shorter wavelength. The experiments showed that natural goethite can photo-catalytically degrade methyl orange, and the degradation efficiency was better (47.5%) than that of the synthetic goethite group (31.5%). This study, for the first time, revealed the band structure and confirmed the photocatalytic properties of natural goethite, which should play an important role in surface substance evolution and elemental cycling.

In this study, zinc oxide nanorods, co-doped with iron and silver, were synthesized in a co-precipitation method. Its properties were determined using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Dynamic light scattering (DLS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The results of FE-SEM and TEM showed that zinc oxide nanoparticles synthesized and co-doped with iron and silver were formed as separate nanorods. Also, the average values of DBP and DEHP amount of phthalates in the leachate from the landfill site of Aradkouh were obtained 52.5 and 94.69 mg/L, respectively. The highest removal efficiency in real samples for phthalates was found to be 52%. The highest removal efficiency of TOC were was 61%. The synthesized nanostructure could have proper efficiency in removal of phthalates from water sources under the visible light of LED lamp.

ZnO photocatalysts were synthesized via solvothermal method and a reduced experimental design (Box-Behnken) was applied to investigate the influence of four parameters (temperature, duration, composition of the reaction mixture) upon the photocatalytic activity and the crystal structure of ZnO. The four parameters were correlated with photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange and the ratio of two crystallographic facets ((002) and (100)) using a quadratic model. The quadratic model shows good fit for both responses. The optimization experimental results validated the models. The ratio of the crystal facets shows similar variation as the photocatalytic activity of the samples. The water content of the solvent is the primary factor, which predominantly influence both responses. An explanation was proposed for the effect of the parameters and how the ratio of (002) and (100) crystal facets is influenced and its relation to the photocatalytic activity. The present research laconically describes a case study for an original experimental work, in order to serve as guideline to deal with such complicated subjects as quantifying influence of synthesis parameters upon the catalytic activity of the obtained ZnO.

The development of efficient, effective, and large-scale treatment methods to address high-risk emerging contaminants (ECs) is a growing challenge in environmental remediation. Herein, a novel parallel coupling strategy of adsorption separation and photodegradation regeneration (parallel ASPR) is proposed; subsequently, an adsorptive photocatalyst (Zn-doped BiOI) is designed to demonstrate how to effectively eliminate fluoroquinolones (FQs) from water with the proposed ASPR scheme. Compared with pure BiOI, the addition of Zn2+ during synthesis has a significant influence on the morphology and structure of the products, resulting in Zn-doped BiOI samples with up to 5 times the specific surface area, 32 times the adsorption capacity, and 20 times the photocurrent intensity. The optimized Zn-doped BiOI sample has an excellent adsorption efficiency for FQs with a removal rate that exceeds 95% after 5 min of adsorption for all 6 tested FQ antibiotics. Then the adsorbed contaminants can be effectively degraded during the later visible-light irradiation process, and the adsorbent can be regenerated synchronously, showing excellent ASPR cycling performances. The mechanisms of rapid adsorption and photocatalysis were explored via material characterizations, adsorption models, density functional theory calculations, and photogenerated species analyses. The results reveal that the enhanced adsorption of Zn-doped BiOI for FQs is due to its high specific surface area, coordination-based chemical adsorption, and surface electrostatic attraction, while its superior visible-light photodegradation performance is mainly ascribed to its strong redox ability, abundant surface oxygen vacancies, and enhanced photogenerated carrier separation efficiency.

This Personal Account describes the authors\' foray into DNA-encoded libraries. The article addresses several key aspects of this hit generation technology, from the development of new synthetic methodology to the subsequent conception, design, and delivery of a DNA-encoded library. In particular, we have been engaged in adapting photocatalytic reactions to the idiosyncratic requirements of DNA-encoded chemistry. We have chosen one such methodology, namely a photocatalytic [2+2] cycloaddition reaction, to showcase how we employed property-based computational analyses to guide the selection and validation of building blocks for the production of a library. Ultimately, these novel bond disconnections and design principles led to the assembly of a DNA-encoded library that is composed of structurally diverse compounds within largely desirable property space and, therefore, well positioned to deliver novel chemical matter for drug discovery programs.