Abstract
An nc-TiO 2/SnO 2 inverse opal composite membrane was fabricated, the photo-activity of which was significantly enhanced by utilizing both slow photons and stop-band reflection of the photonic crystal layer. The materials of the photonic crystal layer must be transparent in the area of adsorption edge of the nc-TiO 2, so that SnO 2, having much greater electronic band gap than TiO 2, was used for the materials of the photonic crystal layer. The photonic band-gap of the SnO 2 photonic crystal was designed at the semiconductor band gap of TiO 2 to harvest slow photons in the interface between the SnO 2 layer and the TiO 2 layer. The two layer structure makes it possible to couple the stop-band reflectivity of the photonic layer to the photocatalyst. Composite membranes can improve solar energy harvesting and substantially improve photocatalysts for photolysis and photochemical degradation of environmental pollutants.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 568-572 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | AICHE Journal |
| Volume | 58 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 2012 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biotechnology
- Environmental Engineering
- General Chemical Engineering
Keywords
- Inverse opal
- Nanocrystalline TiO
- Photo-catalyst
- Photonic crystals
- Slow photons
- SnO
- Stop-band reflection