TiO2 catalyst deactivation in textile wastewater treatment: Current challenges and future advances

Photocatalytic reactors are not commonplace in treatment of wastewater on a commercial scale. This critical review presents a perspective on how to harness the knowledge gained in areas of mass and photon transfer limitations via photoreactor intensification processes to prolong TiO2 catalyst life for photo reactor design. The paper revealed the necessity of TiO2 rational design; considering its surface (rutile and anatase lattices), protonation, water splitting reactions at the TiO2 coordinatively unsaturated sites (CUS) as the limiting step during photocatalytic reactions adding more knowledge on surface interactions that lead to activity inhibition.