A review on floating nanocomposite photocatalyst: fabrication and applications for wastewater treatment

Abstract

The illumination of source light and oxygenation are two fundamental factors for superior photocatalytic performance in waste water treatment. Powder form of existing photocatalyst reduced the performance of the photocatalyst due to lowering active surface area, reduce light utilization and limiting contact area with the pollutants. A number of researchers came out with fresh and novel ideas on immobilizing potential photocatalyst on floatable substrate to form floating composite photocatalyst. The floating composite photocatalyst is an attractive option for waste water treatment due to utilization of full solar irradiation of non-oxygenated and non-stirred reservoir. This makes development of floating photocatalyst is significant to be reviewed. This review highlights the most recent fabrication and application of floating photocatalyst for wastewater treatment. Fabrication techniques such as sol-gel, surface coating, hydrothermal, solvent casting, surface modification, three-dimensional printing and low temperature ultrasonic were reviewed. Moreover, the perspective on future direction to improve the photocatalytic performances were discussed at the end of the review.