Role of nanophotocatalysts for the treatment of hazardous organic and inorganic pollutants in wastewater

摘要

The presence of organic and inorganic pollutants in wastewater has led to the global need for the development of innovative and advanced, but operative technologies to successfully address the challenges of water quality in the best interest of society and environment. It has become, therefore, obligatory to propose efficient photocatalysts and degradation methods which would efficiently detoxify contaminants from wastewater. Different environmental pollution degradation process has been discovered, but photocatalytic process is effective among all of them. In this process, different semiconductor-based photocatalysts have been used. But the incorporation of conductive polymers with semiconductor-based materials is a promising approach to increase the efficiency of the photocatalysts. The unique properties of conductive polymers such as mechanical strength, recyclability of conductive polymer, thermal/electrical conductivity and biodegradability have enabled them in numerous exciting and novel applications including light-emitting diode, chemical sensors, fuel cells, heat exchangers, batteries, biosensors, especially for the detoxification of pollutants. In this review article, the summary of treatment methods, challenges for the materials, nanomaterials and conductive heterogeneous polymers are discussed. The synergistic effect between nanomaterials and conductive polymers was observed to demonstrate their synthesis methods, structure and photocatalytic efficiency. The integration of conductive polymers may result in expressively better photocatalytic activity owing to extending the light absorption-range, inhibiting photo-corrosion, reducing formation of large-aggregates, by improving the separation of charge carriers and increasing the reactant's adsorption.