Nanomaterials

Chapter 5A Review of Pharmaceutical Wastewater Treatment with Nanostructured Titanium Dioxide

Lavanya Madhura and Shalini Singh^*

Department of Operations and Quality Management, Durban University of Technology, Durban 4000, South Africa

^*Corresponding author: [e-mail]

Abstract

Wastewater contains a wide range of organic pollutants, which could have an adverse effect on human health. Nanotechnology has allowed researchers to develop efficient decontamination methods for the degradation of persistent organic pollutants, persistent organic pollutants from waste water. TiO₂ has shown to be a potential candidate for water purification based on the oxidation/photocatalytic degradation process. This chapter focusses on state-of-the-art advancements on TiO₂ photocatalytic degradation and its applications in pharmaceuticals wastewaters.

Keywords: Titanium dioxide, photocatalytic degradation, pharmaceuticals, wastewaters, nanotechnology

5.1 Introduction

Titanium dioxide is effectively and frequently used as a photocatalyst for the treatment of air and water due its easy availability and low price. Titanium dioxide is insoluble in water, is a non-hazardous material, and has a high resistance to acids, bases, and solvents. The photocatalytic activities depend on the size of the particles in which the surface area-to-volume ratio is large. On the other hand, due to its semi-conducting nature, TiO₂ is regarded as a very good photocatalyst. In TiO₂, electron mobility can be observed ...