Emerging nano photo-catalysts for degradation of paracetamol and its prospective: a short review

ABSTRACT

Pharmaceutical wastes are a major concern nowadays in different countries because of their toxic and hazardous effect on the environment and human health. Wide use of paracetamol is somewhat strenuous due to which degradation and detection of these analgesics in different water sources and soil samples attracted concerns from the scientific communities. Though some conventional treatments are available to degrade paracetamols, their complete mineralisation is mostly gruelling using these techniques. However, the emergence of heterogeneous nano photocatalysts help in efficient degradation of paracetamols and overcome the drawbacks of conventional methods. These nano-photocatalysts also yield non-toxic degradation products from paracetamols. The present review focuses on the basics of photocatalysts and a brief survey over a range of publications in recent years. This review also includes the advantage of nano photocatalyst over conventional methods. Modified and supported nano photocatalysts and their efficiencies in the degradation of paracetamols along with their optimisation and dosage control are briefly discussed. Moreover, different new generation catalysts such as use of low band gap inorganic nano photocatalysts and Z-scheme heterojunction systems are also comprised in the report.

KEYWORDS:

• Pharmaceuticals
• paracetamols
• photocatalytic degradation
• nano photocatalysts
• electrons and holes

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/03067319.2023.2215164.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Director, CSIR-North East Institute of Science & Technology, Jorhat, Assam for providing facilities and valuable advice. The authors also thank SEED division, DST New Delhi for financial support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).