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Environmental Chemistry for a Sustainable World
Inamuddin
Abdullah M. Asiri
Eric Lichtfouse Editors
Nanophotocatalysis
and Environmental
Applications
Detoxification and Disinfection
Environmental Chemistry for a Sustainable
World
Volume 30
Series editors
Eric Lichtfouse, Aix-Marseille University, CEREGE, CNRS, IRD, INRA, Coll
France, Aix-en-Provence, France
Jan Schwarzbauer, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
Didier Robert, CNRS, European Laboratory for Catalysis and Surface Sciences,
Saint-Avold, France
Other Publications by the Editors
Books
Environmental Chemistry
http://www.springer.com/978-3-540-22860-8
Sustainable Agriculture
Volume 1: http://www.springer.com/978-90-481-2665-1
Volume 2: http://www.springer.com/978-94-007-0393-3
Book series
Environmental Chemistry for a Sustainable World
http://www.springer.com/series/11480
Journals
Environmental Chemistry Letters
http://www.springer.com/10311
Nanophotocatalysis and
Environmental Applications
Detoxification and Disinfection
Editors
Inamuddin Abdullah M. Asiri
Chemistry Department, Chemistry Department,
Faculty of Science Faculty of Science
King Abdulaziz University King Abdulaziz University
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Eric Lichtfouse
CEREGE, CNRS, IRD, INRA,
Coll France
Aix-Marseille University
Aix-en-Provence, France
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface
v
vi Preface
In the recent decades, the world has encountered severe environmental challenges in
terms of water pollution, climate change, and increasing infectious diseases. The
irregular speed and quantum at which anthropogenic activities are growing have
ended up in the wasting of resources, exposure to toxins, and pollution rise all over
the world. These ubiquitous problems throughout the globe have been worsened in
the developing part of the world due to the industrial revolution and poor monitoring
and control of anthropogenic activities.
The discharge of wastewater is increasing into water bodies and on land, and
varieties of new emerging nonregulated pollutants are entering into the water bodies.
The severe shortage of potable water requires more focus on recycling, remediation,
and reuse. Conventional pollutant treatment and disinfection methods have their own
disadvantages with efficiency and cost issues. The most dignified solutions for
various environmental issues are resource management and cost-effective technol-
ogies for pollution mitigation and disinfection. Among various cost-effective and
viable technologies used for mitigating environmental detoxification, advanced
oxidation process-based photocatalysis is the most pioneer one. Principally, it is
indeed a “green” technology thriving on light especially on naturally and abundantly
available solar energy and oxygen from air under ambient conditions.
The phenomena that came into the news with “Honda-Fujishima” effect proved to
be one of most effective techniques to degrade persistent and emerging contaminants
from aqueous medium utilizing light. After the secondary treatment of polluted
water, photocatalysis is trusted for the next stage as it claims to mineralize the
complex organic pollutants into water and carbon dioxide using hydroxyl and
superoxide radicals. The scientific community, as well as the industrial players,
has then utilized this to the maximum with continuous innovations in the designing
of photocatalytic materials, pilot-scale experiments, and practical treatment of water
using natural solar light.
However, various new sources of production, disposals from medicine and
plastics industry, agriculture, and household conveniences have led to huge wide-
spread toxic pollutants. It has been an issue of concern for the general public as well
as scientists and governments. On a broader line, these are classified as pharmaceu-
ticals, personal care products, and endocrine disruptors. These have challenged the
existing “star” photocatalytic materials and methodologies. New and highly
advanced photocatalysts and improvement in existing photocatalytic technologies
are thus required. Therefore, continuous research is going on various solar-active
materials with multipronged capabilities.
Another issue of environmental concern is increasing toward biohazards such as
bacteria, virus, and other microorganisms in drinking water resources. This has
increased the risk of deadly diseases in humans and aquatic species. Conventional
disinfection methods are failed as many of these microbes developed resistance to
ultraviolet, chlorination, and antibiotics too. Semiconductor-based photocatalysis is
proved to be beneficial for water disinfection, i.e., inactivation and photo-killing of
microbes via generation of reactive oxygen species. Hence, photocatalysis has been
used for environmental detoxification and disinfection which includes organic
pollutants, heavy metal, inorganic contaminants removal, and microbial killing.
Preface vii
ix
x Contents
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Contributors
xi
xii Contributors
Contents
1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Heavy Metals and Their Toxicological Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2.1 Cadmium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2.2 Chromium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.3 Copper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.4 Lead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2.5 Mercury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2.6 Nickel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2.7 Zinc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.3 Overview of Photocatalysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4 Mechanism of Photocatalysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.5 Types of Photocatalysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.5.1 Homogeneous Photocatalysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.5.2 Heterogeneous Photocatalysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.6 Overview and Mechanism of Nano-photocatalysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.7 Photocatalytic Nanoparticle Synthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.7.1 Organic Synthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.7.2 Chemical Synthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.7.3 Physical Synthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.8 Mode of Operation on Nano-photocatalysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.9 Parameters Affecting the Photocatalytic Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.9.1 Effect of pH of the Reaction Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.9.2 Effect of Photocatalyst Concentration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.9.3 Effect of Substrate Adsorption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.9.4 Effect of Dissolved Oxygen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.10 Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.10.1 Chromium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.10.2 Mercury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.10.3 Arsenic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1.10.4 Uranium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1.11 Disadvantages of Photocatalysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.12 Photocatalyst Modifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.1 Introduction
Recently water contamination and water scarcity because of the rapid ongoing
urbanization and industrialization are worldwide extreme environmental issues. As
water is the most essential and fundamental requirement of human sustenance, the
insufficient and limited availability of fresh water is enhancing the environmental
burden, which is in turn negatively affecting the economic development, environ-
mental balance and human wellbeing. To address the adverse environmental effects
of the accelerated utilization of natural resources in a developing economy, the
European Union has adopted a sustainable strategy on the use of water, with the
objective of mitigating the gradual depletion and contamination of water (European
1 Role of Nano-photocatalysis in Heavy Metal Detoxification 3
Several technologies studied for either removal or recovery of toxic heavy metals
include coagulation-flocculation, chemical precipitation, adsorption, membrane fil-
tration, ion exchange, electrochemical treatment, etc. But these conventional tech-
nologies investigated for detoxification of heavy metals are expensive and highly
energy intensive and generate high loads of waste by-products. In recent times,
photocatalysis has gained enormous research attention and emerged as a proficient
technology for reduction of heavy metal to non-toxic state. This technology involves
the use of light energy to excite the semiconductor photocatalyst for the formation of
electron-hole pairs that eventually facilitates the detoxification of heavy metals. The
main positive attribute involved with photocatalysis is the requirement of readily
available sustainable energy source (solar energy) for carrying out the photocatalytic
activity. Moreover, photocatalytic reactions take place in moderate temperature and
atmospheric pressure, aided with an additional advantage when the reactants or
generated products show highly heat sensitiveness and explosive nature (Hennig
and Billing 1993). However, the main intricacy of photocatalysis is the very fast
electron-hole pairs recombination in huge quantity, resulting in the reduced
photocatalytic activity (Rothenberger et al. 1985). Henceforth, worldwide research
efforts have been executed to mitigate this limitation. One of the recent advance-
ments in this field is to reduce the size of semiconductor photocatalysts in nanoscale
for sufficiently elevating the specific surface area and a total number of active sites,
which will eventually improve the photocatalytic activity. Thus, the concept of
implementing nanostructured semiconductor photocatalysts evolved for better
photocatalytic efficiency.
Some of the most abundantly available poisonous heavy metals in the environment
are arsenic, nickel, chromium, cadmium, zinc, cobalt, antimony, copper, etc. which
are highly detrimental posing the toxic threat to the environment. The level of
adverse toxic effect largely depends on the degree of biomagnification. Generally,
different metal ions such as Pb2+, Cd2+, Hg2+, As3+ and Ag+ get reacted with
biomolecules to produce harmful and poisonous components that show intricacy
in case of kidney filtration. The probable health hazards of these aforesaid toxic
heavy metals are discussed briefly in this section.
1.2.1 Cadmium
respiratory problem, lung cancer, kidney failure, liver damage, reproductive disabil-
ities, etc. (Alslaibi et al. 2013; Filipič 2012). The contamination of cadmium in the
river even leads to a disease named ‘itai-itai’ which shows symptoms like bone
degeneration, the bones softening and fractures (Nishijo et al. 2017).
1.2.2 Chromium
The major contributors of chromium to the environments are both the natural sources
(volcano, weathering phenomenon of rocks, soils and sediments) and anthropogenic
ones (fossil-fuel burning, plastic production, chromates production, metals
electroplating and overutilization in the leather, tannery and textile industries).
Chromium coexists in the industrial effluents in hexavalent and trivalent form
(Miretzky and Cirelli 2010). Though Cr(III) is essential in the metabolism of fat
and poses a less toxic threat, Cr(VI) is around 300 times more toxic and harmful for
living plants and organisms compared to Cr(III) (Krishnani and Ayyappan 2006).
The primary source of Cr(VI) is the production of chromate salt. Skin inflammation,
ulcer, vomiting, kidney and liver failure and pulmonary congestion are some of the
diseases caused by chromium (Cieślak-Golonka 1996; Kotaś and Stasicka 2000).
1.2.3 Copper
The use of copper is very common since ancient days. However, recently, the
elevated usage of toxic copper sulphate (CuSO4) in both industrial and agricultural
activities (as a fungicide, pesticide and pathogen killer) has significantly enhanced its
concentration in waterbodies (Özer et al. 2004). It is a necessary element, required at
very trace quantity, for the proper functional activity of some specific protein and
enzymes (Fraga 2005). But if being taken at high concentrations, its negative impact
is severely detrimental for human health. It can exist in various forms including
metal (Cu0), cuprous ion (Cu+) and cupric ion (Cu2+). The most available form of its
existence in the environmental mediums is in cupric ion state, which is compara-
tively more toxic and harmful than other forms (Awual et al. 2014). The toxicity
level of copper sulphate varies largely with the type of aquatic species and is very
dangerous for fish. In the case of humans, overexposure can result in irritation,
vomiting, nausea, loss of physical strength, diarrhoea, stomach damage and kidney
failure (Uriu-Adams and Keen 2005). Continuous exposure for long duration leads
to the accumulation of copper in different organs of the human body such as the
brain and liver, ultimately causing death.
6 A. Mazumder et al.
1.2.4 Lead
1.2.5 Mercury
The mercury pollution incident in Minamata Bay of Japan has created worldwide
alertness. Mothers of that region who were overexposed to mercury pollution
because of the consumption of mercury-accumulated fish are giving birth to phys-
ically disabled, deformed and mentally challenged babies as a consequence of
mercury pollution (Harada 1995). Mercury usually exists in three main forms,
namely, elemental mercury (Hg0), mercuric ion (Hg2+) and mercurous ion (Hg22+).
It can get easily transported in waterbodies and accumulate in food chain organisms
of an ecosystem. In this context, Minamata Convention is adopted in 2013 to save
ecological species from the harmful and dangerous effect of mercury. According to
this convention, the products containing mercury as its constituents have been listed,
and stringent emission standards have been formulated (Mackey et al. 2014; Wu
et al. 2016). The substantial quantity of mercury is discharged with the wastewater of
industries such as chloro-alkali, pharmaceutical, paper and pulp, plastic, oil refiner-
ies, etc. (Boening 2000). Some of the most probable negative health effects of
mercury are kidney failure, brain damage, respiratory system malfunction, repro-
ductive system dysfunction, etc. (Parham et al. 2012).
1.2.6 Nickel
Attributing to the beneficial properties of nickel such as the ability to form an alloy,
high resistivity to corrosion, high strength and durability and good thermal and
electrical conductivity, it is enormously used in different types of industries. Out of
the total nickel consumption, the huge fraction (around 75%) of it is solely utilized
for alloy production (Deevi and Sikka 1996). Some of the well-known health effects
caused by the overutilization of nickel include breathing problem, asthma, dry
1 Role of Nano-photocatalysis in Heavy Metal Detoxification 7
cough, skin irritation, chest pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, gastrointestinal prob-
lem, pulmonary fibrosis, etc. (Das et al. 2008; Mobasherpour et al. 2012).
1.2.7 Zinc
Zinc is essential in nutritional supply at a very trace concentration for the proper
physiological functioning of living tissues. However, if it is present in high amount
in the nutritional diet, its effect becomes adverse causing several health issues such
as vomiting, nausea, pain, fever, skin irritation and inflammation, anaemia, etc.
(Carolin et al. 2017; Cristian et al. 2015). Zinc is majorly utilized in steel industries,
paper and pulp industries, brass metal works industries and electroplating industries.
Therefore, zinc enters in the ecological environment chiefly from human activities
like mining, coal combustion, waste burning, steel production, etc. Only a little
fraction of it is released from natural sources. In the environment, it gets adsorbed to
soil, sediments and dust particles in the air, and then some zinc compounds conse-
quently transfer into the aqueous medium (groundwater and surface water). When
zinc concentration gets slightly enhanced, bioaccumulation occurs in fish and other
aquatic organisms and thus badly affects the aquatic ecology by even bringing the
death of organisms (Emsley 2011; Megateli et al. 2009).
The word ‘photocatalysis’ consists of the affix ‘photo’ (Greek phos, light) and
‘catalysis’ (Greek katalyo, break apart). A catalyst is a material which has the ability
to reduce the free activation enthalpy of a chemical reaction to accelerate the reaction
rate. In an illumination-induced reaction or photoreaction, application of a catalyst to
enhance the reaction rate is defined as photocatalysis. Much like the normal cata-
lysts, a photocatalyst does not get involved in the chemical transformation, but it
promotes the reaction. Unlike the conventional thermal catalysts which are activated
by heat, the photocatalyst is activated by photons of desired energy.
The photocatalysis may work in two different modes when the catalyst (C) is
activated by photons, (1) energy transfer and (2) electron transfer. In energy transfer
mode, the photon-activated photocatalysts (C*) transfer its energy into the reactant/
substrate (S) which, in turn, activates the reactant to undergo oxidation (Fig. 1.1).
This is difficult to achieve when the reactant is in its ground state.
In electron transfer mode, the photon-activated photocatalysts work either as an
electron acceptor or a donor. In this case, oxidation and reduction both take place
with the activated photocatalysts to achieve reaction equilibrium (Fig. 1.2).
Increased surface area, reusability, moderate stability, proper bandgap and material
morphology are significant attributes of the photocatalytic systems. Photocatalysis is
widely used to degrade hazardous organic compounds to natural elemental
8 A. Mazumder et al.
compounds such as CO2 and H2O and to reduce toxic metallic ions into non-toxic
states. Apart from these, eradication of water-borne germs, decomposition of the air
pollutants such as NOx and CO, synthesis of significant industrial chemicals and
plastic degradation are the major points of application of photocatalytic systems
(Singh and Ikram 2016).
Organic pollutant degradation by the photocatalytic system was studied thor-
oughly. However, inorganics especially heavy metals in their various oxidation
states have infinite lifetimes and are not degradable at all. Chemical and biological
treatments of heavy metals are restricted due to not being environmentally friendly
and also economically prohibitive. Moreover, less attention was given to transform
toxic heavy metals into less toxic forms by photocatalysis.
1 Role of Nano-photocatalysis in Heavy Metal Detoxification 9
Any photocatalyst, upon exposure to the light energy (UV-VIS) in the form of
ultraviolet radiation, visible light or fluorescent illumination, gets activated. The
energy within the light excites the electrons of the catalyst’s valence band (VB) and
promotes them towards conduction band (CB). This creates the negative-electron
(J. Yang & Lee) zone at conduction band and positive-hole (h+) zone at the valence
band of the photocatalyst. This is termed as semiconductor’s photoexcitation state.
The difference in the energy within these two bands is known as ‘bandgap’ or
‘forbidden energy zone’. Pairs of h+ and e generated by photo-induced energy
react with water or atmospheric oxygen and form aggressive radical such as
hydroxyl (OH) or superoxide. These radicals are capable of oxidizing organic
and inorganic materials. However, to generate OH radicals, the redox potential of
the valence band hole has to be enough positive, and on the other hand, highly
negative redox potential of the conduction band electron is demanding for the
formation of superoxide radicals (Samsudin et al. 2015).
The wavelength of the light required to supply the bandgap energy is found by the
following equation:
E ¼ hν ¼ hc=λ ð1:1Þ
Based on the reactant and photocatalyst’s state, photocatalysis can be divided into
two subgroups (Ameta and Ameta 2016). When the substrate is already photochem-
ically active, it is known as homogeneous photocatalysis, and if the substrate is
otherwise photochemically inactive, then it is known as heterogeneous
photocatalysis.
When reactant and photocatalyst reside in the identical phase, the reaction is called
homogeneous photocatalysis. Dyes, pigments and coordination compounds are the
major examples of such photocatalysts (Wu and Chang 2006).
Ozone (O3) and photo-Fenton systems (Fe+ and Fe+/H2O2) are widely known as
common homogeneous photocatalysts. •OH is the major reactive species and is
employed for several applications. The reaction of ozone is denoted below:
O3 þ hν ! O2 þ O ð1DÞ ð1:2Þ
O ð1DÞ þ H2 O ! • OH þ • OH ð1:3Þ
O ð1DÞ þ H2 O ! H2 O2 ð1:4Þ
H2 O2 þ hν ! • OH þ • OH ð1:5Þ
H2 O2 þ hν ! HO • þ HO • ð1:9Þ
Fe3þ þ H2 O þ hν ! Fe2þ þ HO • þ Hþ ð1:10Þ
When the photocatalysts and the reactant reside in a different phase, the reaction is
called heterogeneous photocatalysis. Transition metal chalcogenides are very well-
known compounds that could perform heterogeneous photocatalysis. Heterogeneous
photocatalysis can be augmented in the gas phase, liquid phase and aqueous
solution. The overall heterogeneous catalysis process is composed of the following
steps:
1. Reactants transfer from the fluid phase to the surface.
2. Adsorption of the reactants.
3. The reaction takes place in the adsorbed phase.
4. Desorption of the product(s).
5. Removal of the products from the interface area.
Heterogeneous photocatalysis includes a variety of reactions such as oxidation,
dehydrogenation, exchange of deuterium-alkane isotope, metal deposition, polluted
water detoxification, atmospheric pollutant removal and environmental remediation
procedures (Peternel et al. 2007).
Metal oxides such as TiO2, ZnO, ZrO2, MoO3, Fe2O3, WO3, SnO2 and SrTiO3
and chalcogenide metals such as ZnS, ZnO, CdS, WS2, CdSe and MoS2 are some
common photocatalysts (Fig. 1.4). They can generate a bulk amount of electron-hole
pairs. These pairs will eventually undergo dissociation to form free photoelectrons in
the conduction band and photo holes in the valence band when illuminated with
photons from the light source. This phenomenon can only take place when the light
energy is either equivalent to or greater than their respective bandgap energy
(hν bandgap energy) (Zhu and Wang 2017).
Fig. 1.4 Band positions of various semiconductors and redox potentials of the various processes
associated with photocatalysis in water at various pH. (Reproduced from Lim and Goei (2016) with
permission from the Royal Society of Chemistry)
Fig. 1.5 Overview on different types of synthesis methods to produce a variety of nanoparticles.
(Reproduced from Dhand et al. (2015) with permission from the Royal Society of Chemistry)
Fig. 1.6 Schematic representation of radiative (left) C and nonradiative (right) decay of particle
plasmons in noble metal nanoparticles. The nonradiative decay occurs via excitation of electron-
hole pairs either within the conduction band (intraband excitation) or between the d-band and the
conduction band (interband excitation). (Reprinted with permission from Sönnichsen et al. (2002).
Copyright 2002, by the American Physical Society)
1.7.1.2 Microorganisms
Microbes are capable of reducing metal ions into nanoparticles. This process is
economic. A bacterial innate ability such as the reactive nature of intracellular
proteins and other biomolecules possesses the potential to control inorganic crystal
agglomeration at the time of biomineralization processes. Recently, bacterial species
such as Bacillus cereus, Zooglea ramigera, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Rhizopus
oryzae; fungal species like Aspergillus flavus, Bryophilous and Rhizoctonia; and
various other species have been explored for producing metal nanoparticles (Nishant
Srivastava and Mukhopadhyay 2014).
1 Role of Nano-photocatalysis in Heavy Metal Detoxification 15
The sol-gel process uses precursors like metal alkoxides and metal chlorides and
undergoes several types of hydrolysis and polycondensation reaction mechanisms.
In the first step, metal-oxo or metal-hydroxo polymers in the solution are generated.
Afterwards, when the solution turns into a gel-like diphasic system with various
morphologies, the remaining solvent phase is removed by the drying process.
Finally, a thermal treatment is needed to polycondensate and to intensify the
mechanical properties and structural integrity of the product. The sol-gel method is
cost-effective and requires low temperature which gives it an advantage for wide
application. Sol-gel process-derived materials are used in energy, optics, electronics,
biosensors, space, medicine (nanodrug), reaction material and separation (mem-
brane, chromatography) processes (Tseng et al. 2010).
This method uses varying pressure and temperature conditions of supercritical water
to control the characteristics of nanoparticles. It can be performed in both batch
hydrothermal process, which allows undergoing a system with the desired ratio
phases, and in the continuous hydrothermal process which achieves a high reaction
rate within a short period of time.
Polyethene glycols hold qualities such as excellent solvent, stabilizing agent, reduc-
ing agent and complexing agent properties, which can be used as a reaction medium
for synthesis of metallic nanoparticles. This process is extensively utilized to
synthesize a vast range of metal oxide nanoparticles like ZnO, Gd2O3, Cu2O and
indium tin oxide, metal nanoparticles and hybrid metal nanoparticles.