Magnetic photocatalytic antimicrobial materials for water disinfection

The presence of pathogenic microorganisms in aquatic environments poses substantial hazards to human health. Photocatalytic technology for efficient water disinfection has gained considerable interest due to its eco-friendly and cost-effective advantages. Nonetheless, the widespread implementation of photocatalysis in water disinfection is impeded by the powder form of the most commonly employed photocatalysts, rendering their recycling a challenging task. Magnetic photocatalytic antimicrobial materials (MPAMs) have gained considerable attention as they can be easily separated and recovered under magnetic response. Moreover, MPAMs continue to encounter a variety of challenges in the realm of water disinfection, such as inadequacy in the recycling process, a truncated magnetic lifespan of the catalysts, an unsteady coupling between the magnetic carriers and other photocatalysts, and other issues that have received scant scrutiny and consolidation. Furthermore, few reports have comprehensively summarized and analysed MPAMs in recent years. With these aforementioned problems combined, a review of MPAMs for water disinfection has been conducted. At the beginning of this work, the disinfection efficiencies, recyclabilities, and disinfection mechanisms of diverse classes of MPAMs are thoroughly reviewed. In addition, the current difficulties and potential application limitations in these fields are presented to stimulate the development and industrialization of MPAMs to combat pathogens. More importantly, significant attention is directed towards the future research prospects of MPAMs, encompassing the exploration of the photo-Fenton ability of MPAMs, the elucidation of the photothermal catalysis mechanism exhibited by MPAMs, and the investigation of magnetic photocatalytic nanorobots with remarkable capability to actively capture bacteria. This review aims to summarize studies of MPAMs in water disinfection since 2015, with the hope of opening a bright window to this booming research theme.