MXene as emerging material for photocatalytic degradation of environmental pollutants

In recent years, MXene has attracted significant interest in the photocatalysis because of its novel physi-cal and chemical characteristics, including uniform planer structure, strong metallic conductivity, effec-tive functional groups and plenty of derivatives. Compared to other photocatalysts for the photocatalytic degradation of various contaminants, MXene-based photocatalysts possess excellent photodegradation performance and long-term stability. MXene is widely used as a photocatalyst for the photodegradation of organic compounds and CO2 conversion into value-added products to remediate the environment. MXene-based composites possess superb photodegradation activity compared to the pristine MXene because it lacks the active sites and porous structure compared to MXene-based composites. For exam-ple, the NiFe/MXene nanocomposite has ability to degrade the targeted the organic contaminants 4 and 6.72 times higher than the pristine MXene and NiFe, respectively. MXene and their derivatives are invalu-able photocatalysts because of their widespread accessibility, inexpensiveness, non-irritating nature, and excellent photocatalytic performance. The active functional groups present on the surface of MXene have a viable impact on the photodegradation performance. This study reports the recent investigations on the photodegradation capability of MXene-based photocatalysts. The physiochemical characteristics of MXene have been discussed briefly for an extensive understanding of the activity of MXene-based photo-catalysts. The strength of MXene-based photocatalysts for the photodegradation of organic compounds and CO2 conversion into value-added products, physical and chemical synthesis routes of MXene pre-paration are reviewed. Finally, the future work and challenges faced by MXene-based photocatalysts are presented.(c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.