Photo-Catalysis: A Clear Path to Cleaner Chemistry

Photocatalysis has become one of the revolutionary tools of green chemistry as it provides new ideas and environmentally sustainable ways to solve the current urgent environmental problems. Photocatalyst with semiconductor has shown remarkable behavior, especially titanium dioxide (TiO2) and its derivatives because of low energy demands, mild reaction conditions, and potency of degrading persistent organic pollutants. This review discusses the progress of photocatalyst design, as well as their metal/non-metal doping, heterojunction engineering, and multi-functional composite development with the aim of improving light absorption and charge separation. It is believed that understanding the mechanistic framework under photocatalytic processes is extensive because the generation of electron-hole pair and reaction to form reactive oxygen species (ROS) are regarded as the catalyst of degradation of pollutants. The high degradation efficiencies in the range of 94.5% at visible light activation of photocatalytic mechanisms are supported by experimental evidence attained by enhanced photocatalytic systems. The comparative comparison to traditional forms of treatment (chemical, biological, methods) will show the exclusive benefits of photocatalysis through its environmentally friendly nature and its sustainable potential in the long term. Moreover, this piece of writing addresses issues and opportunities of catalyst stability and scale-up capability as well as integration into industrial processes. In general having huge possibilities to reinvent industrial processes photocatalysis is one of the most promising segments of the cleaner chemical technologies