Bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) is considered a potentially attractive candidate for the visible-light-driven photodegradation of organic pollutants. In an effort to enhance their photocatalytic activities, BiVO4 nanofibers with controlled microstructures, grain sizes, and crystallinities are successfully prepared by electrospinning followed by a precisely controlled heat treatment. The structural features, morphologies, and photo-absorption performances of the asprepared samples are systematically investigated and can be readily controlled by varying the calcination temperature. From the physicochemical analysis results of the synthesized nanofiber, it is found that the nanofiber calcines at a lower temperature, shows a smaller crystallite size, and lower crystallinity. The photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine-B (RhB) reveals that the photocatalytic activity of the BiVO4 nanofibers can be improved by a thermal treatment at a relatively low temperature because of the optimization of the conflicting characteristics, crystallinity, crystallite size, and microstructure. The photocatalytic activity of the nanofiber calcined at 350oC for the degradation of RhB under visible-light irradiation exhibits a greater photocatalytic activity than the nanofibers synthesized at 400oC and 450oC.

The gas response characteristic toward C2H5OH has been demonstrated in terms of copper-vacancy concentration, hole density, and microstructural factors for undoped/Li(I)-doped CuO thin films prepared by sol-gel method. For the films, both concentrations of intrinsic copper vacancies and electronic holes decrease with increasing calcination temperature from 400 to 500 to 600 oC. Li(I) doping into CuO leads to the reduction of copper-vacancy concentration and the enhancement of hole density. The increase of calcination temperature or Li(I) doping concentration in the film increases both optical band gap energy and Cu2p binding energy, which are characterized by UV-vis-NIR and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, respectively. The overall hole density of the film is determined by the offset effect of intrinsic and extrinsic hole densities, which depend on the calcination temperature and the Li(I) doping amount, respectively. The apparent resistance of the film is determined by the concentration of the structural defects such as copper vacancies, Li(I) dopants, and grain boundaries, as well as by the hole density. As a result, it is found that the gas response value of the film sensor is directly proportional to the apparent sensor resistance.

The quartz glasses were prepared by sintering of fumed silica powders and the effect of OH concentration on their surface on sintering was studied. Through the firing process, the fumed silica was crystallized from 1180 to region. The amount of hydroxyl group decreased with increase in calcination temperature and consequently the crystallization was prevented. A transparent quartz glass was obtained from fumed silica, previously calcined at , by the sintering at for 1 h.

Titanium dioxide particles are used as cosmetics, pigments, photocatalysts, adsorbents, catalytic supports, and sensors. The TiO2 particles were prepared by the precipitation in TTIP/Solvent mixtures and calcined at different temperatures. The resulting materials were characterized by XRD and SEM testing techniques. The TiO2 particles phase composition was determined by XRD ranging from amorphous to crystalline anatase and rutile largely proportional to the calcination temperature.

The nanosized TiO2 photocatalysts were prepared by the hydrolysis of TiCl4 and calcined at different temperatures. The resulting materials were characterized by TGA, DSC, XRD, and TEM testing techniques. XRD, TEM, and BET measurements indicated that the particle size of TiO2 was increased with rise of calcination temperature and surface area was decreased with rise of it. The prepared TiO2 photocatalysts were used for the photocatalytic degradation of congo red. The effects of calcination temperature, TiO2 loading, the initial concentration of congo red, and usage frequencies were investigated and the rate constants were determined by regressing the experimental data. Calcination is an effective treatment to increase the photoactivity of nanosized TiO2 photocatalysts resulting from the improvement of crystallinity. The optimum calcination temperature of the catalyst for the efficient degradation of congo red was found to be 400℃. The rate constant was decreased with increase in the initial concentration of congo red and increased with increase in the TiO2 loading. In the case of TiO2 photocatalysts, the photocatalytic activity wasn't greatly affected by the usage frequencies.