Photocatalytic Perception for Degradation of Macro- and Micro-plastics

Plastic has made our lives easier and become an integral part of our everyday life but its exponential growth in usage has also led to environmental concerns such as pollution, marine litter, and negative impacts on wildlife. Plastic waste is a significant environmental issue for both aquatic and terrestrial animals. Microplastics, which can be ingested by marine organisms by entering the food chain poses a severe threat to marine life leading to injury or death. Many steps were taken in order to tackle plastic waste by taking initiatives to increase recycling rates, implement policies to reduce single-use plastics and promote the use of biodegradable or compostable plastics. Photocatalytic degradation is a plausible solution for plastic degradation which uses sunlight, particularly ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Photocatalytic conversion of plastics considerably increases the rate of degradation which is credited to the photocatalysts that accelerate the photochemical reaction which are included in the degradation method. In this chapter we draw attention to the potential of photocatalysis as an efficient and economical approach to address the global issue of plastic waste. Firstly, the introduction about composition of plastic waste and photocatalytic degradation has been discussed followed by chemical and physical impacts on degradation efficiency of plastics. Afterwards, photocatalytic degradation mechanism and synthetic routes of photocatalysts along with potential photocatalysts for plastic conversion are reviewed.