Since the COVID-19 pandemic, protection against pathogenic germs and surface disinfection have become critical issues. Most effective bacteria/virus inactivation methods are either power-consuming or require using caustic chemical substances. Herein, thermal inactivation appears to be an affordable and effective technique as long as high temperatures are reached quickly and long-termly maintained. Therefore, the preparation of...

This study investigates the optimization of light-to-heat conversion in gold nanoparticles under irradiation by continuous- and pulsed-wave laser sources. The conversion process relies on the absorption of electromagnetic energy and the subsequent generation of heat, a phenomenon that is integral to a variety of applications. The photothermal conversion model is based on the Rayleigh-Drude approximation, facilitating predictions...

tIn the present investigation, TiO2modified with a different geometry and size of gold particles, suchas nanospheres (NSPs), nanostars (NSTs) and nanorods (NRs), were prepared by the immobilizationmethod. The effect of the gold shape, size and TiO2matrix type (TiO2microspheres or rutile TIO-6 TiO2)were systematically investigated. The obtained photocatalysts were thoroughly characterized by UV–visdiffuse-reflectance spectroscopy...