Broad production, utilization, and scrapping of pesticides worldwide increase the health concern of humans and animals, due to their bio-persistent and bio-accumulating nature. Among the present treatment methods, metaloxide based photocatalysis is the emerging technology for pesticide removal in aqueous medium, and has gained the interest of many researchers in the past years due to its feasibility, cost efficiency and higher degradation rate. This review briefly discusses the mechanism of metaloxide based photocatalytic degradation, reaction kinetics of pesticides degradation, optimization of operational parameters to enhance the degradation process, and different modifications such as binary, ternary or metal/non-metal dopped metaloxide photocatalysts to improve the effectiveness of degradation has also been analyzed. The effect of operational parameters like effect of catalyst dosage, pH, initial pesticide concentration, UV/sunlight, and irradiation time on the photocatalytic degradation of pesticide has been reviewed. The comparison of various photocatalysts for the degradation of diazinon from aqueous medium is summarized. However additional research is required to achieve fast and maximum degradation to keep the environment safe.


Fawad Ahmad, Sana Nisar, Maira Mehmood, Zakiratullah