Borate particulate photocatalysts for photocatalytic applications: A review

Borate is a kind of wide-bandgap semiconducting material with rich structure and variety, which is usually used in optical properties research. Its unique crystal structure has essential research value for expanding the applications of photocatalysis. This review summarizes the recent research progress of borate photocatalysis, including novel borate photocatalyst, borate-based composite, and borate glass photocatalyst. Furthermore, the energy and environmental photocatalysis applications of borate photocatalysts are discussed, such as overall water splitting reaction, water decomposition to generate hydrogen or oxygen, degradation of pollutants, and others. The strategy of the combination of theoretical calculation and experiment to explore new borate photocatalysts was also introduced. Finally, some developing directions and challenges in borate photocatalytic materials are summarized.