Ibuprofen removal from aqueous solution via light-harvesting photocatalysis by nano-heterojunctions: A review

Abstract The usage of personal care products, pharmaceutically active compounds, dyes, and pesticides causes a great impact on aquatic organisms as well as human beings. Elimination of such persistent and eco-toxic pharmaceutically active compounds present in the sewage is a vital thrust area in environmental management. The designing and fabrication of efficient photocatalyst for degrading such compounds is one of the challenging and interesting aspects of photocatalysis. In this review, interfacial regulation strategies of photocatalysts, degradation pathways, and eco-toxicological effects of ibuprofen along with its intermediates have been discussed. Interfacial regulation strategies of catalysts can improve their performances in the degradation of ibuprofen by photocatalysis. The construction of nano-heterojunction and selection of co-catalyst is one of the most important parts for improving the catalyst performance. The photocatalytic efficiency of nano-heterojunctions is higher owing to its low rate of electron-hole (e-/h+) recombination, cost efficiency and improved light utilization. The role of co-catalyst in charge separation and electric conductivity has been discussed. The degradation efficiency of different photocatalysts has been collectively discussed. The toxic effects of ibuprofen on aquatic organisms, human beings, etc., have been discussed briefly. The photocatalytic degradation pathway of ibuprofen based on the active radical and the intermediate compounds along with their toxicity have been compared to other pharmaceuticals in this review. The future scopes in photocatalysis technology and its practical applications have been discussed.