Modification of Semiconductor Photocatalysts via Metal Ion Doping

塔夫茨大学的玛丽简·舒尔茨教授得到了化学系分析和表面化学项目的支持，以开发旨在生成可再现的纳米结构二氧化钛基材的合成程序，并对具有良好特征的金属离子分布的基材进行可控改性。 将使用X射线衍射、拉曼光谱、瞬态吸收、和频产生和原位氧化动力学来表征所得材料。目标是在原子-分子水平上探测电荷转移，并了解金属离子掺杂如何改变氧化过程的步骤。二氧化钛在水处理方面受到了相当大的关注，因为它可以利用容易获得的阳光完全矿化各种污染物，包括农药，生物分子和碳氢化合物污染物。除了这项工作将对水处理技术产生更广泛的影响外，对金属掺杂的二氧化钛纳米颗粒界面的理解将有助于燃料电池技术，腐蚀过程和太阳能转换。

Professor Mary Jane Shultz of Tufts University is supported by the Analytical and Surface Chemistry Program in the Division of Chemistry to develop synthetic procedures designed to generate reproducible, nanostructured titanium dioxide substrates, and controlled modification of the substrates with a well-characterized distribution of metal ions. The resulting materials will be characterized using x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, transient absorption, sum frequency generation, and in situ oxidation kinetics. The goals are to probe charge transfer at the atomic-molecular level and to understand how metal ion doping alters the steps of the oxidation process.Titanium dioxide has received considerable interest for water treatment since it is known to completely mineralize a variety of pollutants including pesticides, biomolecules, and hydrocarbon contaminants using readily available sunlight. In addition to the broader impacts that this work would have on water treatment technologies, an understanding of the metal doped titanium dioxide nanoparticle interface would be useful in fuel cell technology, corrosion processes, and solar energy conversion.