UC Santa Cruz

Chapter 1 provides background information on the current standards for producing hydrogen peroxide, as well as a foundation for the oxygen reduction reaction as a possible replacement. Then delving into electrocatalytic, piezocatalytic and photocatalytic nanomaterials for reactive oxygen species generation. Finally the effect those species can have on bacteria.Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 detail two studies focused on the use of porphyrin based electrocatalysts to generate H2O2. In Chapter 2, copper chlorophyllin modified via magnetic induction heating was found to selectively produce hydrogen peroxide via the two electron oxygen reduction reaction. Chapter 3 is an expansion of this, utilizing tetraphenyl porphyrin to examine the effects of changing side chains and metal centers has on material synthesis catalytic activity. Here copper tetraphenyl porphyrin and cobalt tetraphenyl porphyrin were found to produce hydrogen peroxide via the two electron oxygen reduction reaction, but at lower initially heating temperature than copper chlorophyllin.Chapter 4 explores modified mixed oxidation state titanium suboxide as a photocatalyst. Here the modified oxides were able to efficiently utilize visible light for reactive oxygen species production which was applied to E. coli inhibition and organic dye degradation.Chapter 5 expands on the modification of titanium oxide via addition of other metal oxide heterostructure additions. This was done to increase piezocatalytic performance, here copper oxide was found to be the most effective addition for piezocatalysis and reactive oxygen species generation and again were applied to E. coli inhibition and organic dye degradation.Chapter 6 summarizes the work completed and its potential impact on reactive oxygen species generation.