Photocatalyzed degradation/abatement of endocrine disruptors

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) can cause adverse health effects in reproductive, neurological and immune systems, both on wildlife and on humans. EDCs may enter the environment from a variety of sources: run-off from agricultural lands, leakage from septic tanks, sewage treatment plants (STP). Despite are usually present at trace concentrations, EDCs can still cause significant serious damage. Worldwide EDCs release constantly increases, and it has been demonstrated that the efficiency of conventional water treatment technologies against these contaminants is very limited. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) constitute a promising technology for removal of most persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as EDCs, from waters, and among AOPs, photocatalytic methods are likely the most promising, specially those involving Vis light responsive materials, i.e. solar heterogeneous photocatalysis. This review provides a general and critical overview of the most recent state-of-the-art research on the photocatalytic degradation of EDCs over the last two years. We start describing briefly the problems posed by EDCs in the environment and the fundamentals of photocatalysis, and then focus on the degradation of EDCs in the presence of photocatalysts under irradiation.