Innovative Polymeric Hybrid Nanocomposites for Application in Photocatalysis

The immobilization of inorganic nanomaterials on polymeric substrates has been drawing a lot of attention in recent years owing to the extraordinary properties of the as-obtained materials. The hybrid materials, indeed, combine the benefits of the plastic matter such as flexibility, low-cost, mechanical stability and high durability, with them deriving from their inorganic counterparts. In particular, if the inorganic fillers are nanostructured photocatalysts, the originated hybrid systems will be able to utilize the energy delivered by light, catalysing chemical reactions in a sustainable pathway. Most importantly, since the nanofillers can be ad-hoc anchored to the macromolecular structure, their release in the environment will be prevented, thus overcoming one of the main restrictions that impedes their applications on a large scale. In this review, several typologies of hybrid photocatalytic nanomaterials, obtained by using both organic and inorganic semiconductors and realized with different synthetic protocols, were reported and discussed. In the first part of the manuscript, nanocomposites realized by simply blending the TiO₂ or ZnO nanomaterials in thermoplastic polymeric matrices are illustrated. Subsequently, the atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique is presented as an excellent method to formulate polymeric nanocomposites. Successively, some examples of polyporphyrins hybrid systems containing graphene, acting as photocatalysts under visible light irradiation, are discussed. Lastly, photocatalytic polymeric nanosponges, with extraordinary adsorption properties, are shown. All the described materials were deeply characterized and their photocatalytic abilities were evaluated by the degradation of several organic water pollutants such as dyes, phenol, pesticides, drugs, and personal care products. The antibacterial performance was also evaluated for selected systems. The relevance of the obtained results is widely overviewed, opening the route for the application of such multifunctional photocatalytic hybrid materials in wastewater remediation.