A Review: Carbon-Based Materials for Photocatalytic Degradation of Agrochemicals

AbstractAgrochemicals are the main contaminants in agriculture, which have adversely affected the lifestyle of human beings and have acute or chronic effects on human and aquatic health. Agrochemicals such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), aldrin, dieldrin and endrin are widely used to enhance the productivity and to protect the crops from pests. The fate of these chemicals is undecided as they are washed-off and added to the water bodies. These chemicals eventually enter the food cycle and have adverse effects on human health and aquatic life. Several researches are being conducted to degrade the organic and inorganic contaminants present in waste water. Use of nanomaterial as photocatalyst is a widely used approach for the degradation of agrochemical. Herein, we review the carbon-based nanomaterials for the photocatalytic degradation of pollutants in water. Carbon-based nanomaterials exhibit valuable properties like reactivity, high melting point and boiling point, hardness, electronegative property, ionization energies, electric conductivity, thermal conductivity and closely packed structures, which make them a potential candidate for various applications. Recent advances in the applications of carbon-based nanomaterials for agriculture and environmental remediation, wastewater treatment are explored in the present review article.KeywordsCarbon nanomaterialsGrapheneAgrochemicalsWastewater treatmentPhotocatalysis