5^th Global Chemistry Congress

Historically various types of catalysts have been developed to solve urgent problems such as energy, environment and health

issues. Recently carbon dioxide’s atmospheric concentration continues to rise from the ongoing burning of fossil fuels.

Catalysts that use sunlight to convert CO2 into hydrocarbons and other fuels are attractive to help mitigate this problem, because

they are able to simultaneously consume waste CO2 and generate useful sources of energy in a sustainable and carbon-neutral

manner. TiO2-based materials are the most common photocatalysts for CO2 conversion, but they require either ultraviolet light

because of the large band gap, anion doping to shift the band gap into the visible spectrum, or co-catalysts such as platinum

that transfer electrons from the TiO2 conduction band to the adsorbed CO2. An alternative strategy is to couple TiO2 to a

p-type semiconductor with a valence band energy that lies near the CO2/O2 potential. In terms of health issue, acupuncture

as a therapeutic intervention has been widely used for treatment of many pathophysiological disorders. We have developed a

new class of acupuncture needles, porous acupuncture needles (PANs) with hierarchical micro/nano-scale conical pores upon

the surface, fabricated via a simple and well known electrochemical process, with surface area approximately 20 times greater

than conventional acupuncture needles. The performance of these high-surface-area PANs is evaluated by monitoring the

electrophysiological and behavioral responses from the in vivo stimulation of shenmen (HT7) points in Wistar rats, showing

PANs to be more effective in controlling electrophysiological and behavioral responses than conventional acupuncture needles.