A photocatalytic composition is disclosed that includes a silver halide in combination with one or more rare earth elements. The composition may be used for the photocatalytic degradation of pollutants.

Nanostructured arrays having a metal catalyst (e.g., cobalt) are irradiated with light to initiate the an artificial photosynthetic reaction resulting in the formation of carbon-containing molecules, for example, long chained hydrocarbons or amino acids. A nanostructure having one or more structural elements having a high aspect ratio can formed over a substrate and are placed in contact with water and a carbon-containing source (e.g., carbon dioxide, bicarbonate, methane). When the nanostructure is exposed to light, the water and the carbon-containing source can react to form a molecule having at least two carbon atoms chained together. Structural elements may include a number of metal layers arranged in a patterned configuration so that, upon light irradiation, a greater amount of light energy is concentrated in close proximity to the region where the reaction is catalyzed than for the case without the patterned configuration.

A composition having: titania aerogel having titania nanoparticles and copper nanoparticles. Each of the copper nanoparticles is in contact with more than one of the titania nanoparticles. A method of: providing a titania aerogel, and forming or depositing copper nanoparticles onto the surface of the titania aerogel.

A photocatalyst and a method for producing hydrogen and oxygen from water by photocatalytic electrolysis are disclosed. The photocatalyst includes a photoactive material and metal or metal alloy material (15)—e.g. pure particles or alloys of Au, Pd and Ag—capable of having plasmon resonance properties deposited on the surface of the photoactive material. The photoactive material includes a p-n junction (17) formed by contact of a n-type semiconductor material (10), such as mixed phase TiO2 nano particles (anatase to rutile ratio of 1.5 to 1 or greater), and a p-type semiconductor material (16), such as CoO or Cu2O.

Disclosed is a photocatalyst, and methods for its use, that includes a photoactive material comprising a photonic band gap and an electronic band gap, wherein the photonic band gap at least partially overlaps with the electronic band gap, and an electrically conductive material deposited on the photoactive material.

A system and method are provided in at least one embodiment to process water to produce gas that can be separated into at least two gas flows using a water treatment system having a disk-pack rotating in it to cause out gassing from the water. In a further embodiment, the method and system use the gas released from the water to produce substantially fresh water from the processed salt water.

InGaN offers a route to high efficiency overall water splitting under one-step photo-excitation. Further, the chemical stability of metal-nitrides supports their use as an alternative photocatalyst. However, the efficiency of overall water splitting using InGaN and other visible light responsive photocatalysts has remained extremely low despite prior art work addressing optical absorption through band gap engineering. Within this prior art the detrimental effects of unbalanced charge carrier extraction/collection on the efficiency of the four electron-hole water splitting reaction have remained largely unaddressed. To address this growth processes are presented that allow for controlled adjustment and establishment of the appropriate Fermi level and/or band bending in order to allow the photochemical water splitting to proceed at high rate and high efficiency. Beneficially, establishing such material surface charge properties also reduces photo-corrosion and instability under harsh photocatalysis conditions.

An electromagnetic resonance apparatus for molecular, atomic, and chemical modification of water is provided. The apparatus includes a water container, a resonance induction cell tower, an electronic control unit, a 12-volt power source, a DC to AC power inverter, and a pressure vessel for storing produced hydrogen gas. An electronic control unit is used to provide vibrational energy to the cell tower to facilitate water decomposition.

An anode for oxygen evolution that operates at a small overpotential and in a stable manner, and can be used favorably in an organic chemical hydride electrolytic synthesis apparatus.

An anode 10 for oxygen evolution that evolves oxygen in a sulfuric acid aqueous solution containing a substance to be hydrogenated dissolved at a concentration higher than 1 mg/L, wherein an anode substrate 10a is composed of a valve metal, and an anode catalyst layer 10b containing at least one oxide, nitride or carbide of iridium, and at least one oxide, nitride or carbide of at least one metal selected from the group consisting of elements belonging to groups 4, 5 and 13 of the periodic table is formed on the surface of the anode substrate 10a.

A method for producing a transparent electrode for oxygen production having a Ta nitride layer on a transparent substrate, including: a step of forming a Ta nitride precursor layer on the transparent substrate; and a step of nitriding the Ta nitride precursor layer with a mixed gas containing ammonia and a carrier gas.