Novel Materials based on Nanocrystalline Oxide Doping of Glasses

污染的水代表着严重的经济和人类代价。在像印度这样的中等收入国家，水污染是一个大问题，其经济影响相当于下游地区GDP增长的近一半[1]。事实上，据估计，每天有近4000万升废水进入印度的河流和其他水体，只有一小部分得到充分处理。这种污染物向上游的排放会导致农业收入和产量大幅度减少，为了减少污染物，可以采用物理（过滤、吸附）、化学和生物处理方法。众所周知，在去除水中的油和其他污染物时，基于膜过滤的物理处理比化学和生物处理更可靠。各种吸附剂的吸附被认为是最有效、最经济和生态友好的方法，因为污染物在吸附后可以适当地丢弃，并且吸附剂可以经常回收或重复使用多次。气凝胶是海绵状材料，其总体积的高达98%是空气（因此得名），具有优异的物理化学性质，如低密度，高孔隙率，高表面积和可调节的表面化学性质，可用于多种应用。特别是，气凝胶作为去除几种环境和人类健康威胁污染物的吸附介质已经引起了极大的关注[2]。气凝胶在环境修复中的应用可应用于从大气中吸附CO2，去除工业和城市污水中的挥发性有机污染物，以及用于吸附油、有害有机化合物和重金属离子的水处理过程。事实上，上述污染物是当今世界的主要污染源，导致严重的环境问题，例如全球变暖和对人类健康的危害。二氧化钛，TiO 2，是一种具有优异性能的氧化物材料，其在广泛的应用中被开发，用作催化剂，用作太阳能电池中的光阳极的组分，甚至用作骨植入物中的支架。特别是，二氧化钛作为光催化剂的优异性能，这意味着落在二氧化钛上的光将增强化学反应，已被应用于可见光下的污染物降解[3]。在二氧化钛的常见结晶形式中，由于其上级表面化学、更开放的骨架和更好的电子扩散（这导致传输效率的增强和更高的带隙），二氧化钛被认为是更活跃的相。光催化活性确实强烈地依赖于诸如表面积、带隙和相组成的参数

Polluted water represents a serious economic and human cost. In middle-income countries like India where water pollution is a big problem, the economic impact amounts to a loss of almost half of GDP growth in downstream regions [1]. In fact, it is estimated that every day, almost 40 million litres of wastewater enter rivers and other water bodies in India with only a tiny fraction adequately treated. Such a release of pollution upstream is associated with a significant reduction in agricultural revenues and yields.In order to reduce contaminants, physical (filtration, adsorption), chemical and biological treatments can be used. Physical treatments based on membrane filtration are known to be more reliable than chemical and biological treatments when it comes to removing oil and other contaminants from water. Adsorption by various sorbents is considered to be the most efficient, economical and ecologically benign approach, since the pollutant can be discarded properly after adsorption, and the adsorbant can frequently be recycled or reused several times. Aerogels, which are sponge-like materials, with up to 98% of their total volume being air (hence the name) have excellent physicochemical properties such as low density, high porosity, high surface area and adjustable surface chemistry that can be exploited in several applications. In particular, aerogels have attracted significant attention as an adsorption media for removal of several environmental and human health-threatening pollutants [2]. The use of aerogels in environmental remediation can be applied to CO2 adsorption from atmospheric air, to removal of volatile organic contaminants in industrial and municipal effluents, and to water treatment processes for adsorption of oil, hazardous organic compounds and heavy metal ions. Indeed, the above-mentioned contaminants are the major source of pollution in the contemporary world contributing to serious environmental problems such as global warming and hazards for human health.Titania, TiO2, is an oxide material with excellent properties which are exploited in a wide range of applications, finding use as a catalyst, as a component in photoanodes in solar cells and even as a scaffold in bone implants. In particular, the excellent properties of titania as a photocatalyst, meaning that light falling on titania will enhance chemical reactions, have been applied to the degradation of pollutants under visible light [3]. Among the common crystalline forms of titania, anatase is considered as the more active phase because of its superior surface chemistry, more open framework, and better electron diffusion, which leads to an enhancement in transport efficiency and a higher band-gap. Photocatalytic activity is indeed strongly dependent on parameters such as surface area, band gap, and phase composition