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In this paper, ZnO nanoparticles were modified by depositing different amount of noble metal Ag or Pd on their surfaces with a photoreduction method. The as-prepared ZnO samples were principally characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and surface photovoltage spectroscopy (SPS), and their activity was evaluated by a photocatalytic degradation reaction of phenol solution. The effects of noble metal modification on surface composition, photoinduced charge transfer behavior and photocatalytic activity of ZnO samples were mainly investigated. The results show that, after an appropriate amount of Ag or Pd is deposited on the ZnO surfaces, the O 1s XPS spectrum shifts to higher binding energy, indicating that the content of surface hydroxyl oxygen (O H ) increases. And the SPS intensity greatly decreases, indicating that the photoinduced electrons are easily captured by adsorbed oxygen via noble metal clusters so that the recombination of photoinduced electron and hole pairs is effectively inhibited. These are responsible for the enhancement in the photocatalytic activity. Moreover, the effects of Pd modification on photocatalytic activity is greater than that of Ag, which can be explained by means of surface hydroxyl content as well as charge separation situation.

TiO 2 nanoparticles capped with sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (DBS) are synthesized by a sol–hydrothermal process using tetrabutyl titanate and DBS as raw materials. The effects of surface-capping DBS on the surface photovoltage spectroscopy (SPS), photoluminescence (PL) and photocatalytic performance of TiO 2 nanoparticles are principally investigated together with their relationships. The results show that the surface of TiO 2 nanoparticles can be well capped by DBS groups while the pH value and added DBS amount are controlled at 5.0 and 2% of TiO 2 mass weight, respectively, and the linkage between DBS groups and TiO 2 surfaces is mainly by means of quasi-sulphonate bond. The intensities of SPS and PL spectra of TiO 2 obviously decrease after DBS-capping, while the activity can greatly increase during the photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) solution, which are mainly attributed to the electron-withdrawing character of the DBS groups. Moreover, the enhancement of photocatalytic activity of DBS-capped TiO 2 is also related to the increase in the capability for adsorbing RhB.

In this paper, we examined the lifetimes of made-in-home ZnO and TiO 2 nanoparticles in the gas phase photocatalytic oxidation of n -C 7 H 16 or SO 2 , and especially investigated the deactivation mechanism by utilizing surface photovoltage spectrum (SPS) and X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) testing techniques and by considering semiconductor chemical properties. The results showed that ZnO could almost be deactivated in the gas phase photocatalytic oxidation of n -C 7 H 16 , while TiO 2 could keep most of its activity. In the gas phase photocatalytic oxidation of n -C 7 H 16 or SO 2 , ZnO and TiO 2 both could almost be deactivated. The deactivation mainly resulted from semiconductor surface conduction type change from N-type before the photocatalytic reaction to P-type after the deactivation because of the adsorption of the oxidation products such as H 2 O, CO 2 and SO 3 on the semiconductor photocatalyst surface. In addition, the activity of the deactivated photocatalyst could be regenerated to a nearly full extent by washing and drying.

In this paper, ZnO nanoparticle photocatalysts were modified by depositing Pd on their surfaces with a photoreduction method. We mainly investigated the modification mechanisms as well as the effects on the photocatalytic activity of ZnO nanoparticles of deposited Pd by means of XPS and SPS (Surface Photovoltage Spectroscopy), and the effects of Pd content on SPS responses were also discussed from the point of the electronic energy level. The results showed that the content of crystal lattice oxygen on the surface of ZnO nanoparticle decreased after an appropriate amount of Pd was deposited, while that of adsorbed oxygen increased, indicating that Pd was mainly deposited on the crystal lattice oxygen. At the same time, the intensity of SPS responses of ZnO nanoparticles remarkably decreased. In addition, the activity of ZnO nanoparticles could be greatly improved by depositing an appropriate amount of Pd in the gas phase photocatalytic oxidation of n -C 7 H 16 . Thus, it could be concluded that the increase in surface content of adsorbed oxygen could facilitate the photocatalytic reaction, and there were close relationships between the SPS response and photocatalytic activity, i.e. the weaker the SPS response, the higher the photocatalytic activity, of Pd-deposited ZnO nanoparticles.

In this paper, pure and La doped TiO 2 nanoparticles with different La content were prepared by a sol–gel process using Ti (OC 4 H 9 ) 4 as raw material, and also were characterized by XRD, TG-DTA, TEM, XPS, DRS and Photoluminescence (PL) spectra. We mainly investigated the effects of calcining temperature and La content on the properties and the photocatalytic activity for degrading phenol of as-prepared TiO 2 samples, and also discussed the relationships between PL spectra and photocatalytic activity as well as the mechanisms of La doping on TiO 2 phase transformation. The results showed that La 3+ did not enter into the crystal lattices of TiO 2 and was uniformly dispersed onto TiO 2 as the form of La 2 O 3 particles with small size, which possibly made La dopant have a great inhibition on TiO 2 phase transformation; La dopant did not give rise to a new PL signal, but it could improve the intensity of PL spectra with a appropriate La content, which was possibly attributed to the increase in the content of surface oxygen vacancies and defects after doping La; La doped TiO 2 nanoparticles calcined at 600°C exhibited higher photocatalytic activity, indicating that 600°C was an appropriate calcination temperature. The order of photocatalytic activity of La doped TiO 2 samples with different La content was as following: 1>1.5>3>0.5>5>0 mol%, which was the same as the order of their PL intensity, namely, the stronger the PL intensity, the higher the photocatalytic activity, demonstrating that there were certain relationships between PL spectra and photocatalytic activity. This could be explained by the points that PL spectra mainly resulted from surface oxygen vacancies and defects during the process of PL, while surface oxygen vacancies and defects could be favorable in capturing the photoinduced electrons during the process of photocatalytic reactions.

The ZnO nanoparticles are prepared by a precipitation process, and also are characterized by means of the modern testing techniques such as XPS, ESR, SPS and PL. The activity of the as-prepared ZnO is evaluated in the photocatalytic oxidation of gas phase n-C7H16. The relationships of surface oxygen vacancies (SOV) with photoluminescence (PL) and photo-catalytic performance are discussed in details. The results show that the smaller the particle size, the larger the SOV content, the stronger the PL signal, the higher the photocatalytic activity, in-dicating that the SOV, PL and photocatalytic activity have inherent relationships. This was because of the reasons that the PL signal is attributed to the free and binding excitons resulting from the SOV, while the SOV is favorable for a photocatalytic oxidation reaction since the SOV can easily capture the photoinduced electrons, and the captured electrons had strong interac-tions with the adsorbed oxygen. In addition, the surface states of ZnO nanoparticles, arising from the SOV and oxygen species, are very abundant.