Recent developments and challenges for volatile organic compounds control by the synergistic of adsorption and photocatalysis

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from various industries possess high toxicity and carcinogenicity, posing a threat to both human health and the environment. The great efforts have been made to develop efficient VOCs treatment techniques, such as absorption, adsorption, catalysis oxidation, biological degradation, and others. However, these individual processing technologies exhibited low efficiency and high energy consumption for VOCs treatment. The synergistic combination of adsorption and photocatalysis has emerged as a promising technology, offering the higher removal efficiency, lower energy expenditure, and more eco-friendliness. This review aimed to summarize recent developments of VOCs adsorption/photocatalysis onto a variety of materials, including carbon-based composites, zeolite-based composites, metal organic frameworks-based composites, etc. Furthermore, the key factors affecting the VOCs adsorption/photocatalytic performances were analyzed, with a focus on the physiochemical properties of composites, such as the high specific surface area, oxygen vacancies, and humidity conditions. In addition, the challenges for the VOCs adsorption/photocatalysis were discussed, and highlighted the significance of developing new composites for effective VOCs control in the future.