Materials Science Colloquia April 2024 

Advances in Materials Science for Designing Nanostructured Photocatalysts to Tackle Complex Environmental Challenges

Abstract of the Seminar:

Recent progress in nanoscale material control has paved the way for a new era in design, synthesis, and formulation of catalytic nanomaterials specifically suited to tackle environmental challenges, like water decontamination from emergent pollutants and disinfection. The importance of achieving controlled photocatalytic nanostructured architecture over various length scales is underscored for the scaling up of catalysts, large-scale manufacturing, and application in specific environmental processes, including the design of advanced reactors featuring reusable and recoverable catalysts. The investigation results of nanocomposites pairing TiO2 with Ag or Au nanoparticles reveal a significant improvement in photocatalytic efficiency under UV irradiation, attributed to reduced charge carrier recombination. Similar enhancements are observed in TiO2 NPs/CNT nanocomposites, where TiO2 grows directly on CNT walls. Moreover, these nanocomposites exhibit remarkable activity under visible light. Multifunctional architectures like TiO2/Ag/Fe2O3 not only maintain the enhanced performance of TiO2/Ag but are also easily recoverable using a magnetic field. These nanostructured catalysts are successfully integrated into functional TiO2-based photocatalytic coatings using various techniques such as dip coating, casting, and aerosol assisted plasma deposition. The photocatalytic performance is essentially retained upon immobilization, demonstrating the effectiveness of the coating characteristics and preparative conditions. These nanostructured photocatalytic coatings are applied in real environmental scenarios, showcasing their potential in degradation of organic pollutants, antimicrobials inhibition, and protection of cultural heritage materials. Additionally, examples of upscaling procedures for nanostructured photocatalysts highlight the feasibility of sustainable and scalable manufacring processes. 

About the Speaker: 

Dott.ssa M. Lucia Curri - Dip. Chimica Università di Bari “Aldo Moro” e CNR Istituto per i Processi Chimico Fisici Bari 

M. Lucia Curri is Full Professor of Physical Chemistry at the Chemistry Dept. of University of Bari Aldo Moro (Italy) and associate research scientist at Institute for Physical and Chemical Processes of Italian National Research Council, IPCF-CNR. She received her PhD from the University of Bari (Italy) in 1997, then she worked at CNR until 2018, when she was appointed at University of Bari. She is Vice-President of Italian National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology (INSTM) and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. She is Associated Editor of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP) RSC journal. She is active in the field of material chemistry, aiming to design and fabrication of inorganic and hybrid solids at the nanoscale for obtaining multifunctional nanostructured materials and investigation of their properties. Her research is focused on the development of original strategies for the preparation and functionalization of colloidal nanocrystals based inorganic and hybrid materials, both for fundamental studies and photocatalytic, optoelectronic, energy, and biomedical applications. She is expert in surface engineering of nanoparticles and nanocrystals, for their bioconjugation, organization in mesoscale structures and integration in nanocomposites, also in combination with carbon based nanomaterials. She has been and is coordinator and PI in several European and National research projects, dealing with design and realization of nanostructured functional materials for different applications.