title: Efficient Solar Energy Conversion Using CaCu3Ti4O12 Photoanode for Photocatalysis and Photoelectrocatalysis.
abstract: A highly efficient third generation catalyst, CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) shows excellent photoelectrochemical (PEC) and photocatalytic ability. As only 4% part of the solar spectrum covers UV light, thus it is highly desirable to develop visible light active photocatalyst materials like CCTO for effective solar energy conversion. A direct band transition with a narrow band gap (1.5 eV) was observed. Under light irradiation, high photocurrent density was found to be 0.96 mA/cm(2), indicating the visible light induced photocatalytic ability of CCTO. Visible light mediated photocatalytic and photoelectrocatalytic degradation efficiency of CaCu3Ti4O12 pellets (CCTO) was investigated for three classes of pharmaceutical waste: erythrosin (dye), ciprofloxacin (antibiotic) and estriol (steroid). It is found that the degradation process follows first order kinetic reaction in electrocatalysis, photocatalysis and photoelectrocatalysis and high kinetic rate constant was observed in photoelectrocatalysis. This was quite high in comparison to previously reported methods.
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: H S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kushwaha
authors.affiliation: King Saud University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Science, Riyadh 11451, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Niyaz A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Madhar
authors.affiliation: King Saud University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Science, Riyadh 11451, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ilahi
authors.affiliation: Dielectric Materials Division, Central Power Research Institute, Bangalore, India.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: School of Basic Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Aditi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Halder
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Rahul
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vaish