Photoadsorption center

The second important effect is that irradiation absorption generates active states of the photoadsorption centers with trapped electrons and holes. By definition (Serpone and Emeline, 2002) the photoadsorption center is a surface site which reaches an active state after photoexcitation and then it is able to form photoadsorbed species by chemical interaction with substrate (molecules, or atoms, or ions) at solid/fluid interface. In turn, the active state of a surface photoadsorption center is an electronically excited surface center, i.e. surface defect with trapped photogenerated charge carrier that interacts with atoms, molecules or ions at the solid/gas or solidfiquid interfaces with formation of chemisorbed species. ... 

This complexity determines that investigations on heterogeneous photo-catalytic processes sometimes report information only on dark adsorption and use this information for discussing the results obtained under irradiation. This extrapolation is not adequate as the characteristics of photocatalyst surface change under irradiation and, moreover, active photoadsorption centers are generated. Nowadays very effective methods allow a soimd characterization of bulk properties of catalysts, and powerful spectroscopies give valuable information on surface properties. Unfortunately information on the photoadsorption extent under real reaction conditions, that is, at the same operative conditions at which the photoreactivity tests are performed, are not available. For the cases in which photoreaction events only occur on the catalyst surface, a critical step to affect the effectiveness of the transformation of a given compound is to understand the adsorption process of that compound on the catalyst surface. The study of the adsorbability of the substrate allows one to predict the mechanism and kinetics that promote its photoreaction and also to correctly compare the performance of different photocatalytic systems. 

---