Chapters authored
Solvent Effects on Dye Sensitizers Derived from Anthocyanidins for Applications in Photocatalysis
Anthocyanidins under the effects of solvents water, ethanol, n-hexane, and methanol are interesting due to their suitability as natural dyes for photocatalytic applications. In this chapter, DFT and TDDFT methodologies are used to study their electronic structure. The results displayed include HOMO, LUMO, HOMO-LUMO gap, chemical properties, and reorganization energies for the ground states, and excited state data are also displayed. Malvidin in gas phase has lower gap energy. After addition of solvents, gap energy increases in all cases but malvidin with n-hexane presents narrower gap. Conceptual DFT results show that cyanidin and malvidin may have good charge transfer. Cyanidin presented lower electron reorganization energy (λe) using solvent water; however, ethanol and methanol had similar values. TDDFT is used to calculate excited states, and absorption data show wavelength main peak between 479.1 and 536.4 nm. UV-Vis absorption spectra were generated and solvent effects on each molecule is discussed. Anthocyanidins work well in the visible region with the stronger peak at the green region. These pigments are good options for photocatalysis application and cyanidin and malvidin, in this order, may be the best choices for dye sensitization applications.
Part of the book: Solvents, Ionic Liquids and Solvent Effects
Radiative Transference Equation Algorithm as an ANSYS® User-Defined Function for Solar Technology Applications
Heat effects in photocatalytic reactor applications are discussed and a case study is analyzed where sunlight is used to activate a chemical reaction to degrade water pollutants. Heat is produced in the light-capturing process, and heat effects need to be better understood during the device design process. Radiative transfer equation (RTE) is the guiding equation used to calculate radiation proliferation in participating media, and it is used to describe the balance of radiative energy transport in the participating media including the interactions caused by different processes such as absorption, scattering, and emission, which also are subject to additional phenomena like weakening and magnification. This equation plays an important role in the design process since it may be included in the simulation process to represent the sunlight heat effects in the different photocatalytic reactor components. In this chapter, it is explained how to build a simplified algorithm to incorporate the RTE in a numerical calculation during the design of a photocatalytic reactor using the commercial software ANSYS®. In addition, simplifications are explained that enable the program to coordinate some coefficients such as absorption and dispersion so their effects are included within the numerical calculation. A user-defined function is presented in the end of the chapter as a usable algorithm in ANSYS® program with acceptable results for photocatalytic reactors.
Part of the book: Concepts of Semiconductor Photocatalysis