Recent developments in environmental photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants: the case of titanium dioxide nanoparticles—a review

The presence of both organic and inorganic pollutants in water due to industrial, agricultural, and domestic activities has led to the global need for the development of new, improved, and advanced but effective technologies to effectively address the challenges of water quality. It is therefore necessary to develop a technology which would completely remove contaminants from contaminated waters. TiO2 (titania) nanocatalysts have a proven potential to treat "difficult-to-remove" contaminants and thus are expected to play an important role in the remediation of environmental and pollution challenges. Titania nanoparticles are intended to be both supplementary and complementary to the present water-treatment technologies through the destruction or transformation of hazardous chemical wastes to innocuous end-products, that is, CO2 and H2O. This paper therefore explores and summarizes recent efforts in the area of titania nanoparticle synthesis, modifications, and application of titania nanoparticles for water treatment purposes.