Synthesis and photocatalytic activity of zinc titanates

The investigations of photocatalytic processes on semiconductors surface have drawn attention of many researchers. Both fundamental and applied researches have the common problem of choosing optimum semiconducting material. The main task is to find the material which is the most active and has the highest degree of light energy use. At present, titanium dioxide is considered to be one of the best photocatalysts which is industrial product as well as product of synthesis in many research laboratories. It is also well known, that anatase form of titanium dioxide demonstrates the highest photocatalytic activity. The cause of this phenomenon remains unclear because of a number of exceptions. In our opinion, studies on influence of phase boundary in titanium dioxide on its photocatalytic properties can be carried out by means of studying other oxide composites. In this monograph are described scientific base of obtaining composite catalyst based on ZnО–TiО2 system. Since the rate-limiting stage of the heterogeneous photooxidation is the adsorption of oxidizable substances, the increasing its adsorption to be considered like one of the effective ways to improve its catalytic activity.