Heterogeneous photocatalysis has emerged as a versatile and sustainable technology for the degradation of emerging contaminants in water. This review highlights recent advancements in photocatalysts design, including band gap engineering, heterojunction formation, and plasmonic enhancement to enable visible-light activation. Various reactor configurations, such as slurry, immobilized, annular, flat plate, and membrane-based systems, are examined in terms of their efficiency, scalability, and operational challenges. Hybrid systems combining photocatalysis with membrane filtration, adsorption, Fenton processes, and biological treatments demonstrate improved removal efficiency and broader applicability. Energy performance metrics such as quantum yield and electrical energy per order are discussed as essential tools for evaluating system feasibility. Special attention is given to solar-driven reactors and smart responsive materials, which enhance adaptability and sustainability. Additionally, artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches are explored as accelerators for catalyst discovery and process optimization. Altogether, these advances position photocatalysis as a key component in future water treatment strategies, particularly in decentralized and low-resource contexts. The integration of material innovation, system design, and data-driven optimization underlines the potential of photocatalysis to contribute to global efforts in environmental protection and sustainable development.

Fly ash wastes (silica, aluminum and iron-rich materials) could be smartly valorized by their incorporation in concrete formulation, partly replacing the cement. The necessary binding properties can be accomplished by a simple procedure: an alkali activation process, involving partial hydrolysis, followed by gel formation and polycondensation. The correlations between the experimental fly ash processing conditions, particle characteristics (size and morphology) and the compressive strength values of the concrete prepared using this material were investigated by performing a parametric optimization study to deduce the optimal processing set of conditions. The alkali activation procedure included the variation of the NaOH solutions concentration (8–12 M), temperature values (25–65 °C) and the liquid/solid ratio (1–3). The activation led to important modifications of the crystallography of the samples (shown by powder XRD analysis), their morphologies (seen by SEM), particle size distribution and Blaine surface values. The values of the compressive strength of concrete prepared using fly ash derivatives were between 16.8–22.6 MPa. Thus, the processed fly ash qualifies as a proper potential building material, solving disposal-associated problems, as well as saving significant amounts of cement consumed in concrete formulation.

Electrochemical Sensors for Monitoring of Indoor and Outdoor Air Pollution | InTechOpen, Published on: 2017-05-31. Authors: Igor Cretescu, Doina Lutic and Liliana Rosemarie Manea

Results are reported for thermophoretic deposition of soot particles on resistivity sensors as a monitoring technique for diesel exhaust particles with the potential of improved detection limit and sensitivity. Soot with similar characteristics as from diesel exhausts was generated by a propane flame and diluted in stages. The soot in a gas flow at 240–270C∘was collected on an interdigitated electrode structure held at a considerably lower temperature, 105–125C∘. The time delay for reaching measurable resistance values, the subsequent rate, and magnitude of resistance decrease were a function of the distance between the fingers in the electrodes and the degree of dilution of the soot containing flow. Soot deposition and subsequent removal by heating the sensor support was also performed in a real diesel exhaust. Good similarities between the behavior in our laboratory system and the real diesel exhaust were noticed.

A mesoporous titania structure has been prepared using the ultrasound-assisted sol-gel technique in order to find out a way to tailor its structure. The TiO₂ obtained was compared to the same version of titania but synthesized by a conventional sol-gel method with the objective of understanding the effect of ultrasound in the synthesis process. All synthesis experiments were focused on the preparation of a titania photocatalyst. Thus, the anatase photocatalytic active phase of titania was proven by X-ray diffraction. Additionally, the ultrasonation treatment proved to increase the crystallinity of titania samples, being one of the requirements to having good photocatalytic activity for titania. The influence of surfactant/titania precursor weight ratio on the structural (XRD), textural (N₂-sorption measurements), morphological (TEM), surface chemistry (FTIR) and optical properties (UVDR) was investigated. It was observed that the crystallite size, specific surface area, band gap energy and even photocatalytic activity was affected by the synergism occurring between cavitation effect and the surfactant/titania precursor weight ratio. The study yielded interesting great results that could be considered for further application of ultrasound to tailor mesoporous titania features via sol-gel soft template synthesis, against conventional sol-gel process.