Abstract
The presence of microorganisms, specifically the Escherichia coli, in drinking water is of global concern. This is mainly due to the health implications of these pathogens. Several conventional methods have been developed for their removal; however, this pathogen is still found in most drinking water. In the continuous quest for a more effective removal approach, photocatalysis has been considered as an alternative method for the elimination of pathogens including E. coli from water. Photocatalysis has many advantages compared to the conventional methods. It offers the advantage of non-toxicity and utilizes the energy from sunlight, thereby making it a completely green route. Since most photocatalysts could only be active in the ultraviolet region of the solar spectrum, which is less than 5% of the entire spectrum, the challenge associated with photocatalysis is the design of a system for the effective harvest and complete utilization of the solar energy for the photocatalytic process. In this review, different photocatalysts for effective inactivation of E. coli and the mechanism involved in the process were reviewed. Various strategies that have been adopted in order to modulate the band gap energy of these photocatalysts have been explored. In addition, different methods of estimating and detecting E. coli in drinking water were presented. Furthermore, different photocatalytic reactor designs for photocatalytic inactivation of E. coli were examined. Finally, the kinetics of E. coli inactivation was discussed.
Highlights
Water is an essential natural resource and, perhaps, the greatest need of humanity for health, wellbeing, development, and sustenance of life [1,2,3]
In 1885, Theodore Escherich discovered and described Bacillus coli. It was renamed Escherichia coli after his name [1,24] E. coli is a diverse group of gram-negative bacteria commonly found in the environment
Some of the examples of Extraeases or exert their pathogenic syndromes in systems other than gastrointestinal tract intestinal pathogenic E. coli includes sepsis-causing E. coli (SEPEC), uropathogenic are known as Extra-intestinal pathogenic E. coli [28]
Summary
Water is an essential natural resource and, perhaps, the greatest need of humanity for health, wellbeing, development, and sustenance of life [1,2,3]. About 829,000 yearly deaths are attributed to diarrhea, and this is due to unsafe drinking-water, poor sanitation, and inadequate hand hygiene [7] These water-related diseases are common in developing countries, they are a challenging health concern in the developed world [3,6]. Photocatalytic disinfection is considered as one of the innovative and promising options with high disinfection potential for water purification [13,15] It is regarded as one of the most prominent advanced oxidation technologies (AOT) and has so many applications in water and air purification, viral and bacterial inactivation, and deodorization [16,21,22]. The photocatalytic materials used are non-hazardous and environmentally friendly, yet are effective in the inactivation of pathogenic microorganisms in water [4,8]
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