Historical Overview and Future Prospects of Photocatalysis

Continuous use of textile and fertilizer materials has increased the risk of environmental pollution and energy crisis. Conventional Methods used for the production of the materials contribute to increasing pollution in the environment. Photo-catalysis being an effective oxidation process is an eco-friendly process for the safe elimination of all types of pollutants such as air and water pollutants, aromatics, and other hydrocarbons. Photo-catalysis harvests sunlight thus affecting the environment positively and reducing pollution. The idea of conducting the first photochemical process for catalysis was introduced by Plotikow at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the 1920s, the first attempts were made to create similar processes like photosynthesis by performing photoactivated reactions between carbon dioxide, water, and nitrogen compounds. The photocatalytic properties of oxides were first discovered in the 1940s with the purpose of increasing the life of paints, papers, and pigments. Photocatalytic processes came out to be effective in solving environmental problems by deactivation of pathogens and degradation of air pollutants in the period of 1970s. We can divide the history of photocatalysis into three generations by type of materials used: The first indicates the composition of inorganic semiconductors like TiO2, the second generation is the use of doped semiconductors, and the last generation deals with the utilization of hybrid heterostructures for catalysis. Photocatalytic production of hydrogen, reduction of CO2, and elimination of pollutants are currently the most trending research areas in photocatalysis. Considerable progress has been achieved in the field of photocatalysis in recent years and more is yet to be achieved because of the continuous contribution of the scientific community. Various possibilities can be accomplished shortly which include more complex nanoarchitectures, introduction of novel non-oxidic materials, and hybridizing with photovoltaic modules in a single device.