Affiliations 

  • 1 Centre of Hydrogen Energy, Institute of Future Energy, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia; Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
  • 2 Centre of Hydrogen Energy, Institute of Future Energy, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia; Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia. Electronic address: aishahaj@utm.my
  • 3 Centre of Hydrogen Energy, Institute of Future Energy, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
  • 4 Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
  • 5 Center for Refining & Advanced Chemicals, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, 31261, Saudi Arabia
  • 6 Nanotechnology Engineering, Faculty of Advanced Technology and Multidiscipline, Airlangga University, Jl. Dr. Ir. H. Soekarno, Surabaya 60115, Indonesia
  • 7 Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Pembangunan Nasional "Veteran" Jawa Timur, Surabaya 60294, Indonesia
  • 8 Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tarapacá, Avda, General Velasquez, 1775 Arica, Chile
J Environ Manage, 2023 Feb 01;327:116869.
PMID: 36455446 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116869

Abstract

Photocatalytic degradation is a valuable direction for eliminating organic pollutants in the environment because of its exceptional catalytic activity and low energy requirements. As one of the prospective photocatalysts, zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) is a promising candidate for photoactivity due to its favorable redox potential and higher chemical stability. ZrO2 has a high rate of electron-hole recombination and poor light-harvesting capabilities. Still, modification has demonstrated enhancements, especially extra-modification, and is therefore worthy of investigation. This present review provides a comprehensive overview of the extra-modifications of ZrO2 for enhanced photocatalytic performance, including coupling with other semiconductors, doping with metal, non-metal, and co-doping with metal and non-metal. The extra-modified ZrO2 showed superior performance in degrading the organic pollutant, particularly dyes and phenolic compounds. Interestingly, this review also briefly highlighted the probable mechanisms of the extra-modification of ZrO2 such as p-n heterojunction, type II heterojunction, and Z-scheme heterojunction. The latter heterojunction with excellent electron-hole space separation improved the photoactivity. Extensive research on ZrO2's photocatalytic potential is presented, including the removal of heavy metals, the redox of heavy metals and organic pollutants, and the evolution of hydrogen. Modified ZrO2's photocatalytic effectiveness depends on its band position, oxygen vacancy concentration, and metal defect sites. The opportunities and future problems of the extra-modified ZrO2 photocatalyst are also discussed. This review aims to share knowledge regarding extra-modified ZrO2 photocatalysts and inspire new environmental remediation applications.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.