Photochemical and photophysical processes in nanosystems: TiO2 photocatalysis and photothermal effect over motion

The integration of nanoscience and photochemistry has revealed to be a valuable and novel strategy for a wide range of applications. Light-activated nanosystems are characterized by tunable properties, high level of control and they may be easily implemented in the development of novel “green” strategies. During my PhD, I worked on different light-activated nanosystems: on one hand, I studied their photochemical and photophysical behavior upon light irradiation. On the other hand, I developed and investigated different nanosystems towards applications for water and air remediation. The prepared systems and their characterizations are briefly summarized in the next subsections. In the first part of this work, I focused my attention on the development of novel TiO2 based photocatalyst, and on their embedding and implementation in different support, such as concrete, glass and electrospun nanofibers. At the same time, TiO2 photodegradation properties were enhanced via modification with graphene and photosensitizer dyes. In the second part of this work, I focused my attention on the photophysical response of photoactive nanosystems in solution upon light excitation.