Today, Wiktoria Adamowicz successfully defended her doctoral thesis, which was awarded a distinction. Congratulations, Wiktoria, on this achievement!
Her research explored how the structure and morphology of titanium dioxide (TiO2) and strontium titanate (SrTiO3) influence their photocatalytic activity, particularly in the selective reduction of nitroaromatic compounds to aniline derivatives—important building blocks for pharmaceuticals, dyes, and other chemical products.
The thesis combined studies of anatase and rutile with the design of crystals exposing selected crystallographic facets and the development of TiO2/SrTiO3 thin-film heterostructures. These approaches helped clarify how material design affects the separation of photogenerated charge carriers and the efficiency and selectivity of photocatalytic reactions. Notably, shape engineering of SrTiO3 crystals enabled an increase of up to 40-fold in the reduction rate compared with commercial SrTiO3.