Heterogeneous Photocatalysts: Promising Materials to Address Energy and Environmental Challenges

Nowadays, pollution of the environment with different hazardous compounds is one of the environmental issue that human being is facing. On the other hand, global energy shortage and climate changes have become challenges in the present century. Although various methods such as microbial, adsorption, and ion exchange methods have been used to handle some of environmental pollutants, the application of these methods is restricted due to high cost, poor efficiency, secondary pollution generation, and complicated technology. In recent years, photocatalytic processes have been considered as one of advanced, environmentally friendly, low-cost, and high efficiency strategies to directly harvest, convert and store renewable solar energy for generating sustainable and green energy and addressing a broad range of environmental issues. Potential applications of this green technology include photodegradation of hazardous chemicals, photocatalytic water splitting to produce hydrogen gas, inactivation of microorganisms, photoreduction of carbon dioxide to small molecules of fuels, and synthesis of various organic compounds. Semiconductor materials have vital role in photocatalytic reactions.