Photoelectrochemical Degradation of Contaminants of Emerging Concern with Special Attention on the Removal of Acetaminophen in Water-Based Solutions

SACCO NICOLAS; MARCHESINI, FERNANDA ALBANA; ILARIA GAMBA; GONZALO GARCÍA SILVESTRO

CATALYSTS

MDPI

Lugar: BASEL; Año: 2023 vol. 13

2073-4344

Despite being an indispensable medium for life and the environment, the deterioration of water quality continues to be a matter of great concern for the scientific community since this prob-lem has generated the need to develop processes for water treatment. Among the wide variety of types  of  contaminants,  the  presence  of  contaminants  of  emerging  concern  (CECs)  has  become  an  issue of global concern, since they are present in water in low concentrations and can persist in the environment,  bioaccumulate  and  be  toxic  to  human  health  and  aquatic  biota.  Among  CECs,  this  review focuses on pharmaceutical removal; what favorable effects they have on human and animal health are widely recognized, but the consequences or risks associated with the constant disposal of these  products  to  the  environment,  through  the  manufacturing  process,  consumption,  biological  excretion or inappropriate disposal, are an area under constant study. The presence of pharmaceu-ticals in water represents a high risk to the environment because they contain active ingredients that were designed to induce specific pharmacological effects but, when dissolved in water, reach non-target  populations  and  cause  undesirable  toxicological  effects.  This  review  pays  attention  to  the  photoelectrochemical removal of paracetamol (PTM), as a model molecule, from water, employing different photoactive materials (TiO2, BiVO4, ZnO and tungsten oxides) and the main parameters affecting their performance. The main goal of the present review is to facilitate future researchers to design their experiments concerning the PEC processes for the degradation of pharmaceuticals, spe-cially PTM, and the existing limitations of each system.