This proposal will develop a research and training program for graduate and undergraduate students on surface engineering of titanium dioxide nanomaterials, via metal nanoparticles and molecular catalysts with the aim of improving charge separation, and photocatalytic efficiencies. Students will be supervised by Dr. Pnina Ari-Gur and colleagues at Western Michigan University and Dr. Edson Roberto Leite at the Universidad Federal de Sao Carlos in Brazil. Each year for three years two graduate students and two undergraduate students will spend six weeks in Brazil. This program will also use funding from Brazil to bring three Brazilian students a year to work with Dr. Ari-Gur and the US students for four weeks at Western Michigan University. The research activities of this proposal should lead to the development and characterization of new materials that are relevant to environmental decontamination and to knowledge important to solar energy conversion and several reactions of industrial importance.
