Recent progress on the removal of antibiotic pollutants using photocatalytic oxidation process

Abstract

Due to the widespread use of medicine in recent years, antibiotics as the emerging pollutants have been widely detected in the aquatic environment. To address this situation, developing advanced treatment technologies to effectively remove antibiotics are emergently needed. Photocatalysis for the removal of antibiotics driven by sunlight has been considered a promising technology, due to its green, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective properties. Currently, great efforts have been done to construct highly efficient photocatalytic oxidation systems for the degradation of antibiotic pollutants. To be updated, we herein summary the recent progress on the removal of antibiotic pollutants using the photocatalytic oxidation process within the last 5 years. We begin by introducing the classification, structures, and environmental hazards of common antibiotics. Subsequently, the fundamental mechanism of photocatalytic degradation of antibiotics is presented and the details on the degradation information of the different kinds of antibiotics via semiconductors photocatalysts are discussed and listed. Finally, we present a brief discussion on the opportunities and challenges remaining in photocatalytic removal of antibiotic pollutants.

Graphical abstract

Keywords:

• Antibiotics
• photocatalysis
• photocatalytic oxidation process
• pollutants

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work has been supported by the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (No. 2020B1515020038), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (21876063 and 22076064), Guangdong Special Support Program (2019TX05L129), Special Fund Project for Science and Technology Innovation Strategy of Guangdong Province (2019B121205004).