Use of conductive polymer-supported oxide-based photocatalysts for efficient VOCs & SVOCs removal in gas/liquid phase

Volatile and semi volatile organic compounds (VOCs and SVOCs) are regarding as serious environmental pollutants owign to causing a lot of diseases around the world. The VOCs and SVOCs can be accumulated in both indoor and outdoor areas. Photocatalytic technology has been applied over the last decades in order to purify air and water under solar or artificial lights. To overcome the issues of classical TiO2 photocatalysis, the scientific community has done a lot of research on the engineering of photocatalytic materials with smart and multifunctional properties to fit with the large scale application. Condutive polymers (CPs), such as polyaniline (PANI), polypyrrole (PPy), and polythiophene (PTh), have proven to be an outstanding materials as compared to inorganic semiconductors towards the photocatalytic removal of VOCs and SVOCs. Such a class of photoactive materials including large solar absorption, excellent charges separation, effective redox potential, good conductivity, eco-friendly and so on. This review aims to discuss the recent progress on the development of CPs and their combination with inorganic oxide semiconductors for synergetic effects toward the photocatalytic oxidation VOCs & SVOCs. For the purpose of comparison, main routes to remove VOCs and SVOCs using existing technologies were discussed in the first section. Photocatalytic mechanistic pathways using pristine CPs and CPs@metal oxide composites were critically discussed. Future prospects with appropriate scientific recommendations/suggestions are provided at the end of the review in order to bridge the fundamental research in the field with real-world application.