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Photocatalytic Degradation of Pollutants Using Advanced Ceramics: Materials, Mechanism, Synthesis, and Applications
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This review examines ceramic semiconductor photocatalysts—including ZnO, TiO2, and MoS2—as effective tools for degrading a wide range of environmental pollutants including microplastics, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and heavy metals in wastewater using sunlight. These materials offer a cost-effective, scalable approach to breaking down microplastics and associated chemical contaminants at the treatment stage before they enter broader ecosystems.
Photocatalysis is an effective environment-friendly technique that has emerged as a viable option for the degradation of a wide range of contaminants. In most cases, natural sunlight has been used in photocatalysis which makes it cost-effective. Also, it has emerged as an efficient method for degrading harmful toxic chemicals which are hard to degrade by any other alternatives. Various metals and metal compounds like oxides, sulphides, and carbides are used as photocatalysts to increase the efficiency of degradation. The common metal compounds known as ceramics are ZnO, TiO2, MoS2, ZnS, Fe2O3, SiC, CdS, WO3, SrTiO3, SnO2, NiO, and ZrO2. These materials are also known as semiconductors and are used as effective photocatalysts to degrade harmful and toxic environmental pollutants. This review discusses various ceramic photocatalysts, their application, photocatalysis mechanism, and degradation of various organic and inorganic compounds in actual wastewater. The use of photocatalysts in the treatment of persistent organic and inorganic pollutants in wastewater, such as pharmaceutical compounds, pesticides, dyes, oil, microplastics, and heavy metals is also explored.
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This review examined spinel ferrite nanomaterials and their carbon-based composites as photocatalysts for degrading water pollutants, finding strong adsorption and photocatalytic activity for dyes, pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, and microplastics under UV and visible light, with magnetic separation enabling easy catalyst recovery. Multifunctional spinel ferrite composites show promise as scalable, reusable water treatment materials capable of addressing the growing challenge of microplastic contamination in water systems.
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Photocatalytic Degradation of Macro—and Microplastics Using Titanium Dioxide (TiO₂)
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This review assessed titanium dioxide (TiO2) photocatalysis as a method for degrading macro- and microplastics, finding that UV-activated TiO2 can break polymer chains through reactive oxygen species under controlled conditions. Scalable photocatalytic degradation is a compelling remediation strategy because it can destroy microplastics rather than relocate them, potentially reducing the volume of particles available for human ingestion and environmental accumulation.
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