Experimental techniques for the evaluation of photocatalytic activity

Roberto COMPARELLI, CNR - IPCF

Heterogeneous photocatalysis is of broad interest in materials chemistry and materials science, particularly with the rapid growth of research attention being directed toward energy-related applications, pollution mitigation, and other related areas of environmental impact.

A literature survey reveals more than 15000 papers with the word photocatalyst or photocatalysis in the title published during the last five years (Source: Web of Science, July 2016).  However, many papers report on poorly characterized photocatalysts and make exaggerated claims, such as "highly efficient," "superior efficiency," or "improved efficiency," without properly disclosing the conditions and experimental procedures used to characterize the catalyst materials and determine the photocatalytic efficiencies. As a result, the major conclusions of the papers are oftentimes not supported by the experimental results, and comparisons with prior literature near impossible.

Therefore it is of paramount importance to use uniform guidelines for the analysis and characterization of new and modified heterogeneous photocatalyst materials.

In this presentation the scientific approaches to investigate the photocatalytic activity of nanostructured catalysts and ISO standards associated with semiconductor photocatalysis in water and gas matrices will be discussed highlighting their pros and cons.

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