Multifunctional nanostructured catalysts and sorbents: Destructive adsorbents enhanced by solar energy or photochemical boosting

Abstract

The chronological progression to more and more effective solid decontamination agents is used as a prelude herein. An hypothesis or "goal" is set: it should be possible to create multi-purpose solid decontamination reagents that serve as (1) destructive adsorbents, photooxidation catalysts under visible and UV light, and decon agents for CWAs and BWAs. In order to achieve this goal, one must design non-toxic metal oxide nanomaterials with chemically active Lewis Acid/Base sites. These nanomaterials must possess chromophores that absorb visible light, and be composed mainly of a semiconductor material so that rapid energy transfer of electrons and holes to reactive sites can be achieved. In order to succeed, knowledge about photocatalysts and their structure must be combined with knowledge about solar cells, especially dye-sensitized solar cells based on nano-TiO $_{2}$ . In this way, a multifunctional decon agent of high surface area and low toxicity to humans and animals, whose activity/selectivity is boosted by light, will be achieved.