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Hierarchical optofluidic microreactor for water purification using an array of TiO2 nanostructures.
- Source :
- NPJ Clean Water; 11/10/2022, Vol. 5 Issue 1, p1-10, 10p
- Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- Clean water for human consumption is, in many places, a scarce resource, and efficient schemes to purify water are in great demand. Here, we describe a method to dramatically increase the efficiency of a photocatalytic water purification microreactor. Our hierarchical optofluidic microreactor combines the advantages of a nanostructured photocatalyst with light harvesting by base substrates, together with a herringbone micromixer for the enhanced transport of reactants. The herringbone micromixer further improves the reaction efficiency of the nanostructured photocatalyst by generating counter-rotating vortices along the flow direction. In addition, the use of metal-based substrates underneath the nanostructured catalyst increases the purification capacity by improving the light-harvesting efficiency. The photocatalyst is grown from TiO<subscript>2</subscript> as a nanohelix film, which exhibits a large surface-to-volume ratio and a reactive microstructure. We show that the hierarchical structuring with micro- to nanoscale features results in a device with markedly increased photocatalytic activity as compared with a solid unstructured catalyst surface. This is evidenced by the successful degradation of persistent aqueous contaminants, sulfamethoxazole, and polystyrene microplastics. The design can potentially be implemented with solar photocatalysts in flow-through water purification systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20597037
- Volume :
- 5
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- NPJ Clean Water
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 160141230
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-022-00204-y