Advanced Electrospun Nanofibers for Photocatalytic Degradation: Sustainable Solutions for Wastewater Remediation

The growing contamination of water resources from industrial effluents, agricultural runoff, medical sources, and domestic sources demands an advanced, sustainable solution in wastewater remediation. Photocatalysis is a widely used technique for treating wastewater by degrading complex pollutants into simpler compounds such as carbon dioxide and water. Electrospun nanofibers have emerged as a versatile material for wastewater remediation, offering a high surface area, interconnected porosity, and tunable functionalization. This review presents details on photocatalyst-based electrospun nanofibers for the degradation of various pollutants, with emphasis on sustainable practices. Various electrospinning-assisted synthesis routes, such as blending, core-sheath, and emulsion electrospinning, which include the encapsulation of photocatalysts during the electrospinning process, with respective case studies, are presented. The review also presents post-fabrication techniques, including dip coating, sputtering, spray coating, and cross-linking. The application of electrospun nanofibers for the degradation of various physical, chemical, biological, radiological, and other emerging pollutants is investigated. The review highlights novel photocatalyst integration strategies along with an assessment of the environmental impact and life cycle of photocatalyst-incorporated electrospun nanofibers. Sustainable approaches are proposed, including green routes for the synthesis of photocatalysts, the use of biodegradable polymers, eco-friendly solvents, green cross-linkers, cross-linker-free synthesis methods, harnessing solar energy, and the use of AI, ML, and IoT in optimizing electrospinning parameters. Finally, challenges such as process scale-up, mass production of nanofibers, and process time are addressed along with recent innovations. The findings provide state-of-the-art solutions for wastewater remediation using electrospun nanofibers supporting environmental sustainability, offering chances to upgrade from conventional to new techniques and emphasizing the emerging avenues for large-scale applications.