A photocatalyst electrode decomposes water with light to generate gas. The photocatalyst electrode has a laminate including a substrate, a conductive layer provided on a surface of the substrate, and a photocatalyst layer provided on a surface of the conductive layer, and a first co-catalyst electrically connected to the photocatalyst layer. The light is incident from the surface side of the photocatalyst layer of the laminate, and in a case where a region where the light is incident on the surface of the photocatalyst layer and above the surface is defined as a first region and the region other than the first region is defined as a second region, the first co-catalyst is provided at least in the second region. The first co-catalyst and the photocatalyst layer are electrically connected to each other by at least one of a transparent conductive layer provided on the surface of the photocatalyst layer or a wiring line.

A stereostructure includes a core portion, and a porous portion located around the core portion. The porous portion located inside a position which is inside from an outer edge of the porous portion by 3/20 of a diameter of the stereostructure in an arbitrary cross section of the stereostructure has a void ratio per unit area of less than or equal to 80%.

Provided are a lignin degradation catalyst that exhibits excellent lignin degradability and that is readily separated after degradation reaction, a method for producing the catalyst, and a method for degrading lignin. The lignin degradation catalyst according to the present invention contains a substrate and at least one metal compound immobilized on the substrate, wherein the at least one metal compound contains a copper compound. The method for producing a lignin degradation catalyst according to the present invention includes the step of brining a porous copper substrate into contact with a solution containing an oxidant to obtain a substrate having a copper compound immobilized thereon, or the step of subjecting a porous copper substrate to electro-oxidation to obtain a substrate having a copper compound immobilized thereon.

The process for obtaining M.sup.1BH.sub.4, the process comprising contacting M.sup.1-B0.sub.2 with a metal M.sup.2 in the presence of molecular hydrogen (H.sub.2) under conditions permitting the formation of M.sup.1-BH.sub.4 and M.sup.2-oxide, wherein the M.sup.1 is a metal selected from column I of the periodic table of elements or alloys of metals selected from column I of the periodic table of elements and M.sup.2 is a metal or an alloy of metals selected from column II of the periodic table of elements, provided that M.sup.2 is not Mg and M.sup.1 is different from M.sup.2.

The invention relates to electrocatalysts comprising a carbonitride (CN) shell featuring good electrical conductivity, coordinating suitable catalytically active sites. In a preferred aspect of the invention, the aforesaid carbonitride shell coordinates nanoparticles or aggregates of nanoparticles, on which the active sites of the electrocatalyst are located. In a preferred form of the invention, said carbonitride shell covers suitable cores with good electrical conductivity. Said electrocatalysts are obtained through a process involving the pyrolysis of suitable precursors; in one aspect of the invention, the preparation process requires certain further steps. In one preferred aspect, the steps comprise one or more of the following: chemical treatments; electrochemical treatments; further pyrolysis processes.

A material that is useful as a wear-resistant member, a highly functional photocatalytic material, a photoelectric conversion element material, etc., is produced without the need for complicated processes or complicated handling, which are problems of the prior art. Provided is a method for producing a surface-treated metallic titanium material or titanium alloy material, the method comprising the steps of (1) forming titanium nitride on the surface of a metallic titanium material, and (2) heating the metallic titanium material with titanium nitride formed on the surface thereof obtained in step (1) in an oxidizing atmosphere. Also provided is a method for producing a surface-treated metallic titanium material or titanium alloy material, the method comprising, between steps (1) and (2) above, the step of anodizing the metallic titanium material with titanium nitride formed on the surface thereof obtained in step (1) in an electrolyte solution that does not have an etching effect on titanium, thereby forming a titanium oxide film. Further provided is a surface-treated material.

A hierarchical porous material contains primary pore aggregates. The primary pore aggregates combine to form the secondary pore aggregates. The secondary pore aggregates connect to each other formed the hierarchical porous material. There are primary pores on the primary pore aggregates wherein the diameter of primary pore is 5-500 nm. There are secondary pores on the secondary pore aggregates wherein the diameter of secondary pore is 1-5 m. The hierarchical porous material is used as oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts or photocatalysts having a significantly improved catalytic activity.

The present invention relates to bismuth-titanium oxide composite nanowires used for photocatalysis and a preparation method, belonging to the field of inorganic nanomaterials. The preparation of the bismuth-titanium oxide composite nanowires is: polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and bismuth nitrate are added to NN dimethylformamide (DMF), tetrabutyl titanate and acetylacetone are added after magnetic stirring has been performed for a period of time, continual stirring is performed for more than six hours, and a transparent, stable solution is obtained. Electrospinning is performed on the solution in an electrospinning generation device under certain conditions, and the obtained electrospinning precursor nano fibers are air-fired in a muffle furnace to remove organic matter. After being cooled to room temperature, the electrospinning precursor nano fibers are placed in a tube furnace to be reduced and sintered in a hydrogen atmosphere. The method is energy-saving and environmentally friendly, the conditions are easy to control, costs are low, and large-scale industrial production is easy. The obtained bismuth-titanium oxide nanowires exhibit good degradation activity on methyl orange under illumination, where the methyl orange degradation rate is reaching more than 95% in a reaction lasting for 20 minutes. The obtained bismuth-titanium oxide nanowires have wide application prospects in relation to sewage treatment.

The present invention discloses a method for improving solar energy conversion efficiency using metal oxide photocatalysts having an energy band of core-shell structure for ultraviolet (UV) ray and visible light absorption, comprising a first process of forming a nanoparticle thin film layer; a second process of preparing a core-shell metal oxide on metal oxide nanoparticles by a plasma reaction under a hydrogen and nitrogen gas atmosphere, and a third process of depositing a transition metal on surfaces of core-shell metal oxide nanoparticles to produce a photocatalyst for energy conversion. A great amount of oxygen vacancies is formed in a shell region by the core-shell metal oxide to achieve effects of improving transfer ability of electron-hole pairs excited by light, and extending a wavelength range of absorbable light to a visible light region by changing a band-gap structure.

The present disclosure provides an anatase-type niobium oxynitride having an anatase-type crystal structure and represented by the chemical formula NbON. The present disclosure also provides a semiconductor structure (100) including: a substrate (110) having at least one principal surface composed of a perovskite-type compound having a perovskite-type crystal structure; and a niobium oxynitride (for example, an anatase-type niobium oxynitride film (120)) grown on the one principal surface of the substrate (110), the niobium oxynitride having an anatase-type crystal structure and being represented by the chemical formula NbON.