Hierarchical optofluidic microreactor for water purification using an array of TiO2 nanostructures
Clean water for human consumption is, in many places, a scarce resource, and efficient schemes to purify water are in great demand. Here, we describe a method to dramatically increase the efficiency of a photocatalytic water purification microreactor. Our hierarchical optofluidic microreactor combin...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article (Journal) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
10 November 2022
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| In: |
Clean water
Year: 2022, Volume: 5, Pages: 1-10 |
| ISSN: | 2059-7037 |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41545-022-00204-y |
| Online Access: | Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-022-00204-y Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41545-022-00204-y 
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| Author Notes: | Hyejeong Kim, Hyunah Kwon, Ryungeun Song, Seonghun Shin, So-Young Ham, Hee-Deung Park, Jinkee Lee, Peer Fischer and Eberhard Bodenschatz |
| Summary: | Clean water for human consumption is, in many places, a scarce resource, and efficient schemes to purify water are in great demand. Here, we describe a method to dramatically increase the efficiency of a photocatalytic water purification microreactor. Our hierarchical optofluidic microreactor combines the advantages of a nanostructured photocatalyst with light harvesting by base substrates, together with a herringbone micromixer for the enhanced transport of reactants. The herringbone micromixer further improves the reaction efficiency of the nanostructured photocatalyst by generating counter-rotating vortices along the flow direction. In addition, the use of metal-based substrates underneath the nanostructured catalyst increases the purification capacity by improving the light-harvesting efficiency. The photocatalyst is grown from TiO2 as a nanohelix film, which exhibits a large surface-to-volume ratio and a reactive microstructure. We show that the hierarchical structuring with micro- to nanoscale features results in a device with markedly increased photocatalytic activity as compared with a solid unstructured catalyst surface. This is evidenced by the successful degradation of persistent aqueous contaminants, sulfamethoxazole, and polystyrene microplastics. The design can potentially be implemented with solar photocatalysts in flow-through water purification systems. |
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| Item Description: | Im Titel ist die Zahl 2 tiefgestellt Gesehen am 18.01.2023 |
| Physical Description: | Online Resource |
| ISSN: | 2059-7037 |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41545-022-00204-y |