Heterogeneous Photocatalysis: A Solution for a Greener Earth II

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is a continuation of the previous Special Issue “Heterogeneous Photocatalysis: A Solution for a Greener Earth”, due to the great success of this previous Special Issue.

Since the beginning of the industrial era, various human activities have steadily increased, leading to rapid technological developments and high population growth. As a consequence, the expanding industry has heavily polluted the atmosphere, soil, and water, with negative consequences for humans and the environment. Indeed, high levels of pollution can cause human diseases and health issues, including breathing problems, cardiovascular problems, cancer and neurobehavioral disorders. They can also affect global warming and the associated climate change and sea level rise and significantly damage animals and flora. The main pollutants include aromatic compounds, pesticides, chlorinated compounds, Sox, Nox, heavy metals, and petroleum hydrocarbons.

In order to decrease pollution emissions, various chemical, physical, and biological treatment methods have been developed. The main techniques used for treating wastewater are based on wastewater treatment plants that use dry cleaning, decantation, and biological treatments. Often, pollutant molecules are not eliminated by these processes; therefore, other techniques can be used as secondary treatments to remove these small residual fractions of pollutant molecules. Among these methods, photocatalysis is a well-developed technique. Through the use of a photocatalyst and light, photocatalysis allows the production of highly reactive species that can react with and decompose organic molecules, yielding, in the best case, the final decomposition products of CO₂ and H₂O. The most commonly used photocatalysts include titanium dioxide (TiO₂), zinc oxide (ZnO) and tin oxide (SnO₂).

In this Special Issue entitled “Heterogeneous Photocatalysis: a Solution for a Greener Earth II", we welcome all kind of papers (research papers, reviews, or communications) that deal with innovative photocatalytic processes for environmental applications. The papers may concern the photocatalytic degradation of pollutants in water, air, or soil, using photocatalytic processes for the valorization of waste or the production of green energy.

Prof. Dr. Stéphanie Lambert
Dr. Julien Mahy
Guest Editors

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