The Catalysts for an Environmental Remediation

Abstract

AbstractThe environmental pollution is a serious global challenge. It has a harmful impact on living organisms including humans. A water contamination is still increasing due to intense rise of the urbanization and industrial activity. Thus, there is a strong need of development of the efficient techniques for the removal of the toxic organic compounds from aqueous solutions. This aim can be achieved by using the advanced oxidation processes which involve a generation of highly reactive radical species able to degrade the pollutants in wastewater. The photocatalysis has been demonstrated as a facile, efficient, and low-cost method among different advanced oxidation processes. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the antimony and bismuth chalcohalides used for photocatalytic degradation of dyes or hazardous organic compounds. Moreover, the heterostructured and composite photocatalysts are presented as promising materials that allow to overcome the disadvantages of a single-phase photocatalysis. The photocatalytic performances of the chalcohalide materials are reviewed along with their mechanisms of the dye photodegradation. Finally, the recent progress in application of the low-dimensional chalcohalide compounds in piezocatalysis is discussed.KeywordsPhotocatalysisPiezocatalysisAntimony chalcohalidesBismuth chalcohalidesHeterojunctionsPollutants degradationEnvironmental remediation