Semiconducting nanomaterials are a class of materials that exhibit unique properties and have garnered much interest in recent years due to their potential for use in various applications, including photocatalysis. Photocatalysis involves using light energy to drive chemical reactions, and semiconducting nanomaterials are particularly attractive for this purpose due to their ability to efficiently absorb light and generate reactive species.
There are many different types of semiconducting nanomaterials that have been studied for photocatalytic applications, including metal oxides such as titanium dioxide (TiO2), zinc oxide (ZnO), and iron oxide (Fe2O3), as well as semiconductor nanocrystals such as quantum dots and nanowires.
In photocatalytic applications, semiconducting nanomaterials are typically immobilized onto a substrate or suspended in a liquid or gas phase. When light is absorbed by the nanomaterial, it can generate electron-hole pairs that can then participate in redox reactions with adsorbed species or in the surrounding environment. This can lead to the production of reactive species such as superoxide and hydroxyl radicals, which can be used to degrade pollutants or perform other useful chemical transformations.
The properties of semiconducting nanomaterials can be tuned by controlling their size, shape, and composition, which can affect their absorption spectra, surface area, and chemical reactivity. This has led to the development of a wide range of semiconducting nanomaterials with tailored properties for specific photocatalytic applications.
Semiconducting nanomaterials show great promise for use in photocatalytic applications, and ongoing research is focused on developing new materials and improving their performance and stability for practical applications in areas such as water purification, air pollution control, and renewable energy production.
Semiconductor metal oxide nanomaterials play a pivotal role in enormous areas of energy
associated activities such as photocatalysis, gas sensors, water splittin, solar
cells, optoelectronics etc. In this present scenario, the increase in consumption of
non-renewable energy resources poses a serious threat to humankind's adverse effects on the
environment.
An effective solution to this problem is finding out materials that can efficiently utilize solar
energy. One such material is semiconductor metal oxide nanomaterials. Researchers are
constantly trying to design advanced semiconducting metal oxide nanomaterials with
multifaceted application cost-effectively and straightforward. Semiconductor metal oxide
nanomaterials such as TiO₂, ZnO, CeO₂, Bi₂O₃ etc., are important in the field of solar energy
utilization; the major bottleneck in their utilization is the absorption range ie.;
Their absorption from the UV region has to be shifted to the visible spectrum, then only efficient
utilization of sunlight occurs.
