It is renowned that the oil refineries are venting off 15–20% H2S and hardly 5% has been utilized to produce sulphur by the Claus process. This process is un-economical, highly polluting and by-products create further acute environmental problems. Here, we have demonstrated the conversion of poisonous H2S into H2 and sulphur by stable orthorhombic CdS quantum dots deposited on GeO2 glass nanosystems using a most abundant solar light energy source. This is an eco-friendly process that produces cheaper hydrogen as well as degrades organic dyes efficiently. Surprisingly, the CdS quantum dots obtained in the glass matrix are orthorhombic in structure and highly thermally stable. Such nanocomposites have great significance because they have potential applications in solar cell, LED and other optoelectronic devices.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2242811
Density functional theory has been applied to investigate the effect of electric field on the electronic properties of AgCl and AgBr crystals using a static electric field perturbation. This is our proposed model for the study of plasmonc near field coupling to the electronic states of the photocatalytic semiconductors. A reduction in the band gap value and widening of the band widths are observed with increase in the macroscopic field value indicating a considerable red shift in the absorption spectrum of AgCl and AgBr in the presence of an external electric field. The breakdown strength of AgCl and AgBr crystal is evaluated using Callen’s equation. The results are well in the agreement between the calculated dielectric strength and the available experimental datum.
COBISS.SI-ID: 26033191
Exact electronic structure of two interesting semiconductors that absorb in Vis range have been studied in order to understand the required modifications that can be induced with the plasmonic field and would result in more efficient photocatalytic performances. We reported on optical band gap and valence electronic structure of two Eu2+-based perovskites, EuTiO3 and EuZrO3 as revealed by diffuse optical scattering, electron energy loss spectroscopy, and valence-band x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We found that appearance of the Eu2+ 4f7 band is a reason for narrowing of the optical band gap in the title compounds as compared to their Sr-based analogues.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2619899