Abstract :
[en] Since the beginning of the industrial era, various human activities have steadily increased, leading to a rapid technological development and a high population growth. As consequence, the expansion of the industry has heavily polluted the atmosphere, soil and water with negative consequences for humans and environment. Indeed, major pollution can cause human diseases like breathe problems, cardiovascular problems, cancer, neurobehavioral disorders,…. It can also affect global warming, associated climate change, sea level rise and have serious damages on animals, flora,… The main pollutants are aromatic compounds, pesticides, chlorinated compounds, SOx, NOx, heavy metals or petroleum hydrocarbons.
In order to decrease this emitted pollution, various chemical, physical and biological treatment methods exist. For treating wastewater, the major technics are gathered in a wastewater treatment plant using dry cleaning, decantation, biological treatment,… Sometimes there are still molecules which are not eliminated by these processes, there are so technics which can be used as secondary treatment to remove this small residual fraction of pollution. Among these methods, photocatalysis is a technic well developed past years. This mechanism allows the production of highly reactive species, thanks to a photocatalyst and light, that can react and decompose organic molecules, in the best case, in the final decomposition products CO2 and H2O. The most commonly used photocatalysts are titanium dioxide (TiO2), zinc oxide (ZnO), tin oxide (SnO2),…
In this special issue entitled "Heterogeneous photocatalysis: a solution for a greener Earth?", we welcome all kind of papers (research papers, reviews or communications) dealing with innovative photocatalytic processes for environmental applications. The papers can concern the photocatalytic degradation of pollutants in water, air or soil, either the use of photocatalytic process for the valorization of wastes or the production of green energy.
