Single atom catalysts for degradation of antibiotics from aqueous environments by advanced oxidation processes: A review

Abstract

The advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) based on single atom catalysts (SACs) are highly promising methods to address the problems caused by antibiotics in water contamination. The techniques used by SACs for the effective degradation of antibiotics are covered in detail for the first time in this paper. The relationship between the microenvironment engineering of SACs and antibiotics degradation was scrutinized, including the type of metal centers, the coordination number, and the effect of substrates of SACs. Then, we present a comprehensive overview of diverse SACs/AOPs systems that facilitate the degradation of antibiotics, encompassing photocatalysis, activation of H2O2 by SACs, electrocatalysis, and sulfate radical-based AOPs, combined methods, and other methods. Then, we delved into the impact of key factors such as molecular structure of antibiotics, SACs dosage, oxidant concentration, and water quality. Meanwhile, toxicity assessment methods were evaluated for antibiotics degradation performance by SACs. Finally, we discuss future research directions and challenges.