Federica Fina

Facile structure design based on C3N4 for mediator-free Z-scheme water splitting under visible light

In this work, two photocatalysts (i.e., C3N4 and WO3) were successfully combined into a heterojunction structure by a facile hydrothermal method for mediator-free overall water splitting, analogous to the natural photosynthesis over a two-step photoexcitation Z-scheme system. Hydrogen and oxygen are evolved with a 2 : 1 ratio by irradiating the C3N4-WO3 composites loaded with Pt under visible light (λ > 420 nm) without any redox mediator. Introducing reduced graphene oxide (rGO) into the C3N4-WO3 composites enhances the water splitting efficiency. Through optimizing the mass ratio in the C3N4-WO3 composites, rGO content, amount of loaded Pt and pH value of the reacting system, the highest H2/O2 evolution rates of 2.84 and 1.46 μmol h−1 can be obtained, with a quantum yield of 0.9%. Our findings demonstrate that the hydrothermal method is a promising strategy for constructing intimate heterostructures for Z-scheme water-splitting systems without using any redox mediator, and that rGO can be used to further enhance the performance in optimized conditions.

Macro-mesoporous resorcinol–formaldehyde polymer resins as amorphous metal-free visible light photocatalysts

We have demonstrated that resorcinol–formaldehyde resin polymers are good visible light responsive photocatalysts, with band gap energies ranging from ca. 1.80 to 2.00 eV. They were found to be photoactive in terms of decomposition of organic substrates under visible light irradiation. The photocatalytic performance of resins could be markedly enhanced by coupling with electron conducting materials such as reduced graphene oxide. Photocatalytic water oxidation was also achievable on the hybrid reduced graphene oxide/resin catalyst with a sacrificial agent. These industrial widely-used resins exhibit many merits as photocatalysts such as low-cost, high surface area, large pore size and volume, facile preparation and scalability for development of eco-friendly commercial products with “self-cleaning” properties, based on their capability for the oxidative removal of organic pollutants under visible light.

Surface ligand mediated growth of CuPt nanorods

CuPt alloy nanorods have been synthesized via one dimensional assembly of randomly orientated nanocrystallites in the presence of hexadecanoic acid and hexadecylamine as surface ligands. When hexadecanoic acid was added into the synthetic system first followed by a second step of adding hexadecylamine, strands of ultrathin CuPt nanowires were produced. The roles of the amine and organic acid are discussed. A novel ligand mediated mechanism is proposed, in which the formation of a stable monolayer structure of the ligands is the driving force to guide the 1D growth of the alloy nanorods without the influence of the crystal orientation. Photocatalytic hydrogen production from water has been performed using CuPt nanorods as a cocatalyst, which has a higher production rate (234.08 μmol h−1 g−1) than that of Pt nanorods under the same conditions (~66.35 μmol h−1 g−1). Our results suggest that polycrystalline CuPt nanorods with a large amount of defects are probably promising cocatalyst for photocatalysis.

Using a CRIS to Support Communication of Research: Mapping the Publication Cycle to Deposit Workflows for Data and Publications ☆

Abstract This paper describes a case study to explore how we continue to develop our CRIS and support the Universitys research needs and how it has become an embedded tool for researchers to manage their research outputs and to enable Open Access and Open Data. The paper will show how we used researchers’ feedback and comments to develop a simple and easy to remember workflow mapped against existing and familiar research lifecycles. We examine some of the technical, practical and cultural issues we have encountered in implementing these workflows, and show how the CRIS as a single portal has streamlined tasks and reduced duplication of effort.

Integration of an active research data system with a data repository to streamline the research data lifecycle : Pure-NOMAD case study

The authors acknowledge the work of Juan Karsten for the partial development of the Pure-NOMAD integration. This work has been supported by the EPSRC-Strategic Partners Project (2012, grant number EP/J501542/1) and the Impact Acceleration Account (2016, grant number EP/K503940/1).