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Advances in Photocatalytic Degradation of Emerging Microplastics: A Systematic Review
Summary
This systematic review summarizes advances in using light-activated chemical processes to break down microplastics in the environment. The research shows that photocatalysis, especially using titanium dioxide, is a promising method for destroying microplastics without creating harmful byproducts, though more work is needed to speed up the process for real-world use.
Abstract The increasing presence of microplastics (MPs) in the environment has become one of the most concerning issues in recent times from environmental and health perspective. Substantial research works are going on to combat MPs pollution using diverse treatment techniques. Photocatalytic degradation is one of the most potential and sustainable approaches to mineralized MPs without producing additional harmful by-products. The objective of this review is to provide a state-of-the-art overview of the recent advances in photocatalytic degradation of MPs in a systematic manner. The PRISMA procedure was applied for conducting systematic review. Peer-reviewed research articles published in English language between year 2020 and 2025 were selected using a combination of search keywords from Web of Science and Scopus database. Bibliometric co-occurrence networks of keywords were constructed and visualized using VOSviewer software. Although there has been increasing research considering pollution of MPs, most of the studies have concentrated on monitoring rather than focusing on treatment. Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 )-based photocatalysts showed superior degradation performance compared to others. One of the main factors in the photocatalytic destruction of MPs is the faster production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Though, photocatalysis is so far emerged as a potential degradation methods of MPs, reduction of reaction time to completely mineralized MPs is a crucial research gap. This review provides an extensive reference for future studies that focus on enhancing MPs’ photocatalytic degradation efficiency.
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