title: Enhancement in Rate of Photocatalysis Upon Catalyst Recycling.
abstract: Recyclability is an important aspect for heterogeneous photo-catalysts. Ease of recovery and stability of the photo-catalyst in terms of efficiency over the number of cycles are highly desired and in fact it is ideal if the efficiency is constant and it should not decrease marginally with each cycle. Presented here is a seminal observation in which the photocatalytic activity is shown to improve with increasing number of catalytic cycles (it is 1.7 times better after the 1stcycle and 3.1 times better after the 2ndcycle). Specifically, nanorods of pure TiO2and TiO2doped with controlled amount of tungsten have been used to degrade two model pollutants: Phenol and Rhodamine B under exclusive visible light illumination. It was found that, in case of 1 mol.% W incorporation, rate of photocatalysis and also the range of visible light absorption of the photocatalyst increased after the photocatalysis as compared to before photocatalysis. This aspect is unique for doped TiO2and hence provides an intriguing way to mitigate low photoactivity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Rd, Colaba, Mumbai, 400005 India.
authors.forename: Kalpesh
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sorathiya
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Rd, Colaba, Mumbai, 400005 India.
authors.forename: Biswajit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mishra
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Rd, Colaba, Mumbai, 400005 India.
authors.forename: Abhishek
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kalarikkal
authors.affiliation: Catalysis Division and Center of Excellence on Surface Science, CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, 411008 India.
authors.forename: Kasala Prabhakar
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.affiliation: Catalysis Division and Center of Excellence on Surface Science, CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, 411008 India.
authors.forename: Chinnakonda S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Gopinath
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Rd, Colaba, Mumbai, 400005 India.
authors.forename: Deepa
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Khushalani