Recent advancement in conjugated polymers based photocatalytic technology for air pollutants abatement: Cases of CO2, NOx, and VOCs

Zeeshan Ajmal; Mahmood Ul Haq; Yassine Naciri; Ridha Djellabi; Noor Hassan; Shahid Zaman; Adil Murtaza; Anuj Kumar; Abdullah G Al-Sehemi; Hamed Algarni; Omar A Al-Hartomy; R Dong; Asif Hayat; Abdul Qadeer

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.136358

Recent advancement in conjugated polymers based photocatalytic technology for air pollutants abatement: Cases of CO₂, NO_x, and VOCs

Chemosphere. 2022 Dec;308(Pt 2):136358. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.136358. Epub 2022 Sep 7.

Authors

Zeeshan Ajmal¹, Mahmood Ul Haq², Yassine Naciri³, Ridha Djellabi⁴, Noor Hassan⁵, Shahid Zaman⁶, Adil Murtaza⁷, Anuj Kumar⁸, Abdullah G Al-Sehemi⁹, Hamed Algarni¹⁰, Omar A Al-Hartomy¹¹, R Dong¹², Asif Hayat¹³, Abdul Qadeer¹⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xian, 710072, China; MoA Key Laboratory for Clean Production and Utilization of Renewable Energy, MoST National Center for International Research of BioEnergy Science and Technology, College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100083, China.
² Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Advanced Catalysis Materials, College of Chemistry and Life Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, 321004, China.
³ Laboratoire Matériaux et Environnement LME, Faculté des Sciences, Université Ibn Zohr, BP, Cité Dakhla, Agadir, 8106, Morocco.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, Universitat Rovira I Virgili, Tarragona, 43007, Spain. Electronic address: ridha.djellabi@yahoo.com.
⁵ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, PR, 100081, China.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Energy Conversion and Storage Technologies, Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, PR China.
⁷ MOE Key Laboratory for Non-equilibrium Synthesis and Modulation of Condensed Matter, State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behaviour of Materials, Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials and Mesoscopic Physics of Shaanxi Province, School of Physics, Xian Jiaotong University, Xian, Shaanxi, 710049, PR China.
⁸ Nanotechnology Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, GLA, University, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, 281406, India.
⁹ Research Center for Advanced Materials Science (RCAMS), King Khalid University, P.O. Box 9004, Abha, 61413, Saudi Arabia; Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Khalid University, P.O. Box 9004, Abha, 61413, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁰ Research Center for Advanced Materials Science (RCAMS), King Khalid University, P.O. Box 9004, Abha, 61413, Saudi Arabia; Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, P.O. Box 9004, Abha, 61413, Saudi Arabia.
¹¹ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia.
¹² MoA Key Laboratory for Clean Production and Utilization of Renewable Energy, MoST National Center for International Research of BioEnergy Science and Technology, College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100083, China.
¹³ College of Chemistry and Life Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, Zhejiang, 321004, China; College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, 321004, China. Electronic address: asifncp@yahoo.com.
¹⁴ State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, National Engineering Laboratory for Lake Pollution Control and Ecological Restoration, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China. Electronic address: Dr.AQ.Geographer@gmail.com.

PMID: 36087730
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.136358

Abstract

According to World Health Organization (WHO) survey, air pollution has become the major reason of several fatal diseases, which had led to the death of 7 million peoples around the globe. The 9 people out of 10 breathe air, which exceeds WHO recommendations. Several strategies are in practice to reduce the emission of pollutants into the air, and also strict industrial, scientific, and health recommendations to use sustainable green technologies to reduce the emission of contaminants into the air. Photocatalysis technology recently has been raised as a green technology to be in practice towards the removal of air pollutants. The scientific community has passed a long pathway to develop such technology from the material, and reactor points of view. Many classes of photoactive materials have been suggested to achieve such a target. In this context, the contribution of conjugated polymers (CPs), and their modification with some common inorganic semiconductors as novel photocatalysts, has never been addressed in literature till now for said application, and is critically evaluated in this review. As we know that CPs have unique characteristics compared to inorganic semiconductors, because of their conductivity, excellent light response, good sorption ability, better redox charge generation, and separation along with a delocalized π-electrons system. The advances in photocatalytic removal/reduction of three primary air-polluting compounds such as CO₂, NO_X, and VOCs using CPs based photocatalysts are discussed in detail. Furthermore, the synergetic effects, obtained in CPs after combining with inorganic semiconductors are also comprehensively summarized in this review. However, such a combined system, on to better charges generation and separation, may make the Adsorb & Shuttle process into action, wherein, CPs may play the sorbing area. And, we hope that, the critical discussion on the further enhancement of photoactivity and future recommendations will open the doors for up-to-date technology transfer in modern research.

Keywords: CO(2) conversion; Conjugated polymers; NOx oxidation; Photocatalysis; VOCs oxidation.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Air Pollutants*
Carbon Dioxide
Catalysis
Environmental Pollutants*
Humans
Polymers
Technology

Substances

Air Pollutants
Environmental Pollutants
Polymers
Carbon Dioxide