Patent ID: 11938469
Assignee: YING-BING JIANG
Field: Chemical engineering (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC B  C  A | IPC A  B  C

Claim 0:
1. A apparatus comprising:
a transparent ceramic substrate; and
a photocatalyst layer covering the transparent ceramic substrate, at least partially;
wherein the photocatalyst layer includes a semiconductor material that, upon exposure to electromagnetic radiation, forms a plurality of electrons and a plurality of holes that remain confined to the photocatalyst layer;
wherein the transparent ceramic substrate is spherical and has a diameter that is larger than the wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation;
wherein the transparent ceramic substrate is a selected from materials that have structures selected from the group consisting essentially of highly oriented crystalline, semi-crystalline, vitrified and amorphous materials;
wherein the photocatalyst layer comprises a mono or multiple atomic layer and has a thickness of less than 5 nanometers;
wherein the semiconductor material consists essentially of titanium dioxide, cerium dioxide or a solid solution of titanium dioxide and cerium dioxide;
wherein the transparent ceramic substrate has a diameter that is between 0.01 millimeter and 1 millimeter; and
wherein the photocatalyst layer and the transparent ceramic substrate form a particle having a specific surface area of less than 0.02 square meters per gram.