TiO2 photocatalyst for water treatment applications

Recently, many water treatment technologies, such as biological treatment, coagulation/precipitation techniques, Fenton oxidation treatments, and advanced oxidation techniques, have been assessed to address the worsening clean water shortage. This review summarizes these technologies and provides the background and principle of photocatalysis for advanced oxidation technology. In particular, this paper focuses on semiconductor TiO2 photocatalysts as well as the latest modifications of TiO2 photocatalyst, such as the introduction of metals or heteroatoms onto TiO2, physical modification of TiO2 for a variety of morphologies, and hybrid TiO2/nanocarbon composites, to improve the photocataytic activities for an advanced oxidation process. This review provides useful information to scientists and engineers in this field. (C) 2013 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.