Professor Jyrki M. Mäkelä, Aerosol Physics Laboratory, Tampere University, will give a presentation on “Tuning the performance of a photocatalyst by deposition of silver, silver - ferric oxide or silver - cobalt ferrite aerosol nanoparticles”.

“We have studied the performance of photocatalytic TiO₂-substrates by measuring their ability to decompose acetylene gas (as a representative of a gaseous pollutant) under illumination of UV or visible light. The efficiency of the photocatalyst can be enhanced by depositing silver nanoparticles from aerosol phase onto the substrate, which practically narrows the band gap of the semiconductor TiO₂, and shifts the active wavelength range towards visible light, which is considered advantageous for many applications. Secondly, it has also been observed that external magnetic field has an ability to enhance the efficiency of a photocatalyst. This is assumed to be due to Lorentz force effect keeping electrons and holes in the material apart from each other and thereby decreasing their loss by recombination. In the on-going project, our aim is to deposit magnetic nanoparticles (along with silver nanoparticles) from aerosol phase onto the photocatalyst, with an intent to increase the local magnetic fields within the material, and thereby enhance the effect of the external magnetic field even further.”

Professor Jyrki M. Mäkelä is a physicist, researcher of aerosol science and a physics professor. He has carried out research on atmospheric aerosol phenomena, mainly experimental work, at University of Helsinki for ca. 20 years, and experimental research on generating functional nanomaterials at Tampere University (formerly Tampere University of Technology) for another 20+ years, of which he also served 10 years as a Department/Unit Head for Physics.

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