Direct benzene conversion to phenol in a hybrid photocatalytic membrane reactor

Review on the Use of Heavy Metal Deposits from Water Treatment Waste towards Catalytic Chemical Syntheses

The toxicity and persistence of heavy metals has become a serious problem for humans. These heavy metals accumulate mainly in wastewater from various industries' discharged effluents. The recent trends in research are now focused not only on the removal efficiency of toxic metal particles, but also on their effective reuse as catalysts. This review discusses the types of heavy metals obtained from wastewater and their recovery through commonly practiced physico-chemical pathways. In addition, it covers the advantages of the new system for capturing heavy metals from wastewater, as compared to older conventional technologies. The discussion also includes the various structural aspects of trapping systems and their hypothesized mechanistic approaches to immobilization and further rejuvenation of catalysts. Finally, it concludes with the challenges and future prospects of this research to help protect the ecosystem.

The Evolution of Photocatalytic Membrane Reactors over the Last 20 Years: A State of the Art Perspective

The research on photocatalytic membrane reactors (PMRs) started around the year 2000 with the study of wastewater treatment by degradation reactions of recalcitrant organic pollutants, and since then the evolution of our scientific knowledge has increased significantly, broadening interest in reactions such as the synthesis of organic chemicals. In this paper, we focus on some initial problems and how they have been solved/reduced over time to improve the performance of processes in PMRs. Some know-how gained during these last two decades of research concerns decreasing/avoiding the degradation of the polymeric membranes, improving photocatalyst reuse, decreasing membrane fouling, enhancing visible light photocatalysts, and improving selectivity towards the reaction product(s) in synthesis reactions (partial oxidation and reduction). All these aspects are discussed in detail in this review. This technology seems quite mature in the case of water and wastewater treatment using submerged photocatalytic membrane reactors (SPMRs), while for applications concerning synthesis reactions, additional knowledge is required.

Selective Oxofunctionalization of Cyclohexene over Titanium Dioxide-Based and Bismuth Oxyhalide Photocatalysts by Visible Light Irradiation

Photocatalysis driven under visible light allows us to carry out hydrocarbon oxofunctionalization under ambient conditions, using molecular oxygen as a sacrificial reagent, with the absence of hazardous subproducts and the potential use of the Sun as a clean and low-cost source of light. In this work, eight materials—five based on titanium dioxide and three based on bismuth oxyhalides—were used as photocatalysts in the selective oxofunctionalization of cyclohexene. The cyclohexane oxofunctionalization reactions were performed inside of a homemade photoreactor equipped with a 400 W metal halide lamp and injected air as a source of molecular oxygen. In all assayed systems, the main oxygenated products, identified by mass spectrometry, were 1,2-epoxycyclohexane, 2-cyclohexen-1-ol, and 2-cyclohexen-1-one. Titanium dioxide-based materials exhibited higher selectivities for 1,2-epoxycyclohexane than bismuth oxyhalide-based materials. In addition to this, titanium dioxide doped with iron exhibited the best selectivity for 1,2-epoxycyclohexane, demonstrating that iron plays a relevant role in the cyclohexene epoxidation process.

Visible-Light Photocatalysts and Their Perspectives for Building Photocatalytic Membrane Reactors for Various Liquid Phase Chemical Conversions

Photocatalytic organic synthesis/conversions and water treatment under visible light are a challenging task to use renewable energy in chemical transformations. In this review a brief overview on the mainly employed visible light photocatalysts and a discussion on the problems and advantages of Vis-light versus UV-light irradiation is reported. Visible light photocatalysts in the photocatalytic conversion of CO2, conversion of acetophenone to phenylethanol, hydrogenation of nitro compounds, oxidation of cyclohexane, synthesis of vanillin and phenol, as well as hydrogen production and water treatment are discussed. Some applications of these photocatalysts in photocatalytic membrane reactors (PMRs) for carrying out organic synthesis, conversion and/or degradation of organic pollutants are reported. The described cases show that PMRs represent a promising green technology that could shift on applications of industrial interest using visible light (from Sun) active photocatalysts.

In situ treatment of metalworking wastewater by chemical addition-dissolved air flotation coupled with UV, H2O2 & ZnO

The hybrid treatment techniques have been proven that could be a proper solution to the metalworking fluid (MWF) wastewaters disposal challenge. Hence, this investigation was conducted aim to the assessment of chemical addition-dissolved air floatation (CA-DAF) unit followed with a heterogeneous photocatalytic (PC) process as UV/H₂O₂/ZnO to treat MWF wastewater produced in one of the central industrial estates in the Middle East. The CA-DAF unit was implemented as trial and errors and had an appropriate efficiency. However, the environmental discharge standards were not achieved only by this unit, so that, a PC process considered for this purpose in a pilot-scale reactor. And also, Chemical oxygen demand (COD), total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) were considered as physicochemical parameters to analyze the applied photochemical reaction throughout the concentrations of ZnO and H₂O₂, and pH value as variables of the study. The ideal and optimized conditions were observed at pH 10, 600 mg l^-1 of ZnO, and 13.11 g l^-1 of H₂O₂ via 99.87% and 97.9% reduction rates in total COD and TPH, respectively. These removal rates were obtained for this integrated strategy under the optimized reaction. By evaluating the synergistic effect, it was found that UV/ZnO could be a predominant reaction in this process. The organic and intermediates analysis appeared 78.46% reduction for all detected organic matters. Besides, PC generation of bis phthalate, mono phthalate, benzene, and benzoic acid to 2,6-bis (1,1-dimethylethyl)-4-mthyl phenol was the reason of the residual phenolic compound concentration in the reaction solution with low removal rate. The kinetic study showed that this reaction could be well fitted with the pseudo-first-order kinetic model by R ² equal with 0.973 and 0.988 in turn for COD and TPH. The expenditures to treat 1 m³ of the CA-DAF was estimated at 5.335 us$ via cost analysis. Finally, the collected findings indicate that CA-DAF integrated with UV/H₂O₂/ZnO can be an efficient approach in the MWF wastes disposal or treatment for reuse.

Overview of Photocatalytic Membrane Reactors in Organic Synthesis, Energy Storage and Environmental Applications

This paper presents an overview of recent reports on photocatalytic membrane reactors (PMRs) in organic synthesis as well as water and wastewater treatment. A brief introduction to slurry PMRs and the systems equipped with photocatalytic membranes (PMs) is given. The methods of PM production are also presented. Moreover, the process parameters affecting the performance of PMRs are characterized. The applications of PMRs in organic synthesis are discussed, including photocatalytic conversion of CO2, synthesis of KA oil by photocatalytic oxidation, conversion of acetophenone to phenylethanol, synthesis of vanillin and phenol, as well as hydrogen production. Furthermore, the configurations and applications of PMRs for removal of organic contaminants from model solutions, natural water and municipal or industrial wastewater are described. It was concluded that PMRs represent a promising green technology; however, before the application in industry, additional studies are still required. These should be aimed at improvement of process efficiency, mainly by development and application of visible light active photocatalysts and novel membranes resistant to the harsh conditions prevailing in these systems.

Development of photocatalysts for selective and efficient organic transformations

One of the main goals of organic chemists is to find easy, environmentally friendly, and cost effective methods for the synthesis of industrially important compounds. Photocatalysts have brought revolution in this regard as they make use of unlimited source of energy (the solar light) to carry out the synthesis of organic compounds having otherwise complex synthetic procedures. However, selectivity of the products has been a major issue since the beginning of photocatalysis. The present article encompasses state of the art accomplishments in harvesting light energy for selective organic transformations using photocatalysts. Several approaches for the development of photocatalysts for selective organic conversions have been critically discussed with the objective of developing efficient, selective, environmental friendly and high yield photocatalytic methodologies.