Cellulose-based photocatalytic membranes for dye degradation: A review

Clean drinking water has been a challenge due to the pollution from industrialization, urbanization, the growing global population, and lack of infrastructure. Textile industry waste has become a major problem due to wastewater that contains dyes commonly discharged into the water bodies. Wastewater-containing dye should be treated to avoid undesired environmental effects. Among the various water treatment methods, photocatalysis has been getting growing attention in mitigating water pollution issues, particularly in removing organic contaminants (such as organic dyes) due to their good efficiency, low cost, and environmental friendliness. Organic-inorganic composites such as combinations of cellulose and semiconductors can produce unique functional hybrid materials with tailored characteristics. Cellulose has been used as a carrier material due to its superfine network structure, reactive surface groups, and good compatibility with metal oxides. In addition to increasing the catalyst surface area, it improves the photocatalytic effectiveness of nanocomposites by acting as electron acceptors and transporters resulting in a better charge carrier separation. Therefore, cellulose-based photocatalytic membranes are environmentally friendly, fully biodegradable, and biocompatible with efficient applications in wastewater management for the degradation of organic dyes. In this review work, the applications of cellulose-based photocatalytic membranes for the removal of cationic and anionic organic dyes have been reviewed.