There has been a tremendous surge in research on the synthesis of various metal compounds aimed at simulating the water-oxidizing complex (WOC) of photosystem II (PSII). This is crucial because the water oxidation half reaction is overwhelmingly rate-limiting and needs high over-voltage (approx. 1 V), which results in low conversion efficiencies when working at current densities required for hy...

CaMnO(3) and Ca(2)Mn(3)O(8) were synthesized and characterized by SEM, XRD, FTIR and BET. Both oxides showed oxygen evolution activity in the presence of oxone, cerium(IV) ammonium nitrate and H(2)O(2). Oxygen evolution from water during irradiation with visible light (λ > 400 nm) was also observed upon adding these manganese oxides to an aqueous solution containing tris(2,2'-bipyridyl) rutheni...

Catalysts with the formula of LaCo(1+x)O(3+δ), where 0 ≤ x ≤ 1, were studied for oxidation of CO and C2H6 in a synthetic exhaust gas, comprising 6.0 % CO and 0.2 % C2H6 in Ar. Ethane was selected as a model for hydrocarbons in the exhaust gas. The performance of catalysts is correlated to their properties, particularly their ...

CO oxidation over platinum group metals has been investigated for some eight decades by many researchers and is considered to be the best understood catalytic reaction. Nevertheless, there has been a renewed interest in CO oxidation recently because of its technological importance in pollution control and fuel cells. Removal of COx from automobile exhaust is accomplished by catalytic converters...

This thesis describes the development and study of catalysts for redox reactions, which either utilize oxygen or hydrogen peroxide for the purpose of selectively oxidizing organic substrates, or produce oxygen as the necessary byproduct in the production of hydrogen by artificial photosynthesis. The first chapter gives a general introduction about the use of environmentally friendly oxidants in...

The activities for the vapour-phase oxidation of toluene of various molybdenum-containing catalysts have been measured in a flow microreactor operating at 1 atm pressure. The catalysts comprised (a) unsupported crystalline MOO,, (b) MO oxide monolayers on A&O,, CeO,, TiO,, and ZrO, supports, and (c) Al-, Ce-, and Zr-molybdate salts. The rates of oxidation of toluene per unit surface area on the...

Methanol carbonylation on Rh and Ir organometallic complexes with iodide co-catalysts is currently used to produce acetic acid. Catalyst cost and recovery, as well as the toxic and corrosive nature of iodide compounds, has led a search for alternate routes, such as zeolite acid catalysts for methanol or dimethyl ether carbonylation and dispersed metal oxide domains for the oxidation of ethane, ...

An important approach in the design of new environmentally friendly materials is represented by the study of analogous systems already existing in nature. In the search for new water splitting catalysts, the corresponding natural analogue is represented by the oxygen-evolving complex of photosystem II, which is a large membrane protein complex present in photosynthetic organisms. The understand...

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been investigated in recent years as a catalyst support for proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Improved catalyst activities were observed and attributed to metal-support interactions. We report a study on the kinetics of methanol electro-oxidation on CNT supported Pt-Ru alloy nanoparticles. Alloy catalysts with different compositions, Pt53Ru47/CNT, Pt69Ru31/CNT an...

UNLABELLED BACKGROUND Synthetic dyes represent a broad and heterogeneous class of durable pollutants, that are released in large amounts by the textile industry. The ability of two immobilized metalloporphines (structurally emulating the ligninolytic peroxidases) to bleach six chosen dyes (alizarin red S, phenosafranine, xylenol orange, methylene blue, methyl green, and methyl orange) was co...