Preface to the Special Issue on “Heterogeneous Photocatalysts: From Fundamentals to Innovative Applications”

Excerpt

Heterogeneous photocatalysis, the subject of this Special Issue, is a versatile, low-cost and environmentally benign technology. Hence, there are significant progress and efforts to exploring heterogeneous photocatalysts, which opens new avenues for a wide range of industrial photocatalytic applications. Herein, this thematic issue of Topics in Catalysis is a collection of 36 manuscripts from globally recognized scholars and researchers with the focus on emerging trends in heterogeneous photocatalysis. Apart from the fundamentals in photocatalysis, i.e., mechanism and kinetics, this Special Issue also emphasizes the industrial and agricultural wastewater remediation, air pollutant treatment, as well as chemicals and green fuel production, viz., hydrogen via various photocatalytic processes from lab-scale to pilot-scale studies. Moreover, advanced material preparation approaches, namely, microwave-assisted solvothermal synthesis, modified sol-gel method, and supercritical anti-solvent precipitation route for synthesizing nano-photocatalysis, waste-derived nanomaterials, and nanocomposites, are highlighted. In addition to examining operational parameters, photocatalytic process optimization, modeling and advanced photoreactor coupled with other biological processes are underlined in this notable collection. We believe that this thematic issue of Topics in Catalysis on “Heterogeneous Photocatalysts: From Fundamentals to Innovative Applications” can successfully provide an informative forum for scientists, engineers, physicists, and chemists to rapidly address the most critical and emerging issues in the field of heterogeneous photocatalysis. …