R. Sidaravičiūtė “Novel surface morphology photocatalysts for the decomposition of organic contaminants” doctoral dissertation defence

Author, Institution: Rūta Sidaravičiūtė, Kaunas University of Technology

Science area, field of science: Technological Sciences, Environmental Engineering, T004

Scientific Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Dainius Martuzevičius (Kaunas University of Technology, Technological Sciences, Environmental Engineering, T004).

Dissertation Defence Board of Environmental Engineering Science Field:
Prof. Dr. Habil. Jurgis Kazimieras Staniškis (Kaunas University of Technology, Technological Sciences, Environmental Engineering, T004) – chairman,
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Egidijus Griškonis (Kaunas University of Technology, Technological Sciences,  Environmental Engineering, T004),
Prof. Dr. Violeta Makarevičienė (Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy, Technological Sciences,  Environmental Engineering, T004)
Prof. Dr. Rasa Pauliukaitė (Centre of Physical and Technological Sciences, Technological Sciences,  Environmental Engineering, T004),
Dr. Johan Albrecht Schmidt (University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Technological Sciences,  Environmental Engineering, T004).

The doctoral dissertation is available at libraries of Kaunas University of Technology (Donelaičio 20, Kaunas), Vytautas Magnus University (K. Donelaičio g. 52, Kaunas) and Lithuanian Energy Institute (Breslaujos   g. 3, Kaunas).

Annotation:

There is a discharge of variety contaminants from residential and industrial sources nowadays, and not much is known regarding their fate in the environment. Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) are being widely explored for the ability to destroy most of pollutants present in different environmental medium, whereas heterogeneous photo-catalysis is recognized as a promising and relatively clean process for this purpose.

To solve the limitations of this process, research strongly focuses on the semiconductors used in the process, including control of e^––h⁺ recombination rate, shape of the material, sustainable reuse etc.

This work presents the formation of different nanostructures of TiO₂ photo-catalyst, together with characterization of their morphological and photocatalytic properties. Another important aspect of increasing the efficiency of the immobilization of nanoform of TiO₂ was also investigated. The novel attempts of increasing photocatalytic surface area, such as fibre-on-fibre structure and interference lithography, are presented.