The most popular VIS-light source for measuring photocatalytic activity must be XBO R 300 W/60 C OFR by Osram. However, it is not easy to buy the source and it does not seem easy to use it- it also requires special lamp-holder.
May you recommend a light source for the measurements? What do you use?
The first priority is reproducibility of the values in other labs.
Hi Mikhail,
The Xe-lamp source of Newport is a standard one used in most of the labs to carry out photocatalytic experiments. The lamp has different power Xe-lamp sources and you can use cut-off filters or monochromator to remove the UV light from the source.
Yes, Xenon lamp by using cut-off filters is a good source of visible light. the cost varies depending on its power.
Dear Mikhail,
It will be good to use the lamp sources for visible light utilization as per above suggestions. If you can't able to use the cut-off filters, you can use sodium nitrite solution as filters which can absorb the light of wavelength below 400nm...The sodium nitrite solution can also be act as a coolant for the lamp while the photocatalytic reaction going on...
It is better measure the power with optical density meter. each lamp has differenece
Newports' source costs too much for us, around 10 000$. Is there any alternative with the price of an order of magnitude lower?
All the sugestions are all right.
However, I understand that you want to compare your results with those published by other groups. Now, here you will have to face a problem: it is not only the spectral profile of the source (which can be controlled through filters) but is also the irradiance (W/m2). Not all the papers are mentioning this value and this makes really difficult to compare. Photocatalysis idealy should use each photone, so the "photons concentration" on the surface (the irradiance) will significantly influence yor kinetics. So, my advice is also to decide in which irradiance range do you plan to run your experiments, before finaly deciding.
Nowadays, cheap visible-light irradiation sources are available. You can buy them simply from many electrical stores. In recent yrars, my research group has applied SMD sources. These sources have high intensity in visible region without any emission in UV and IR regions. For more information, please refer to the following papers:
Ceramics International 41 (2015) 1467–1476 .
Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing 39 (2015) 162–171.
Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 465 (2016) 83–92.
Journal of Molecular Catalysis A: Chemical 415 (2016) 122–130.
Moreover, the price of these sources are about 40 US$ with intensity of 50 W. The efficiency of these sources are high. Hence, their intensities are not very lower than other commercial sources with high power.
As we know, photocatalytic activity is related to different parameters such as power of the light source, the distance between source and the solution, type and concentration of the pollutant, type and weight of the photocatalyst. Hence, comparing the results of various papers is not good idea. As a result, one have to evaluate photocatalytic activity of different photocatalysts in the same experimental conditions.
Aziz Habibi-Yangjeh,
I have checked 2 papers from the list you provided. The information given there is "An LED source with 50 W was used as a visible-light source".
May you provide the manufacturer of the source and its model? I found the spectrum in doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2014.09.081 . It seems to be reasonable with the UV filter.
I think what Aziz says is completely correct. Comparing the results of various papers is not good.
i am fabricating Photochemical reactors with Xe lamps and medium pressure lamps. which are suitable for Water Splitting and dye degradation. I have also made some reactors to be used in Vitamin D research and production
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