Heterogeneous photocatalysis: guidelines on experimental setup, catalyst characterization, interpretation, and assessment of reactivity

Abstract

Soon after the publication of the first pioneering works on heterogeneous photocatalysis, the number of papers on this topic continuously increased. This intriguing field of research is very complex as it endows with an interdisciplinary overview that involves different aspects of chemistry, physics, material and environmental sciences. Even if photocatalytic applications in real processes are often difficult to be implemented and scaled-up, investigations at laboratory scale are easy to be performed, and in some cases they may give rise to misconceptions. For this reason, the present work aims to sum up most of the common experimental techniques and procedures generally used in heterogeneous photocatalysis and to highlight the guidelines and the rules that a rigorous analysis and study of a photocatalytic system must follow. The paper focuses on the importance of standardization of photocatalytic experiments with special attention on the possibility to compare results obtained under different experimental conditions.