Recent Progress in Photocatalytic Degradation of Antibiotics: Materials, Mechanisms, and Environmental Impact

ABSTRACT Antibiotic contamination has become a global environmental concern due to their increasing consumption and persistent release into water, air, and soil. Their extensive application in medicine, agriculture, and aquaculture significantly contributes to environmental pollution. In this review, we provide detailed recent progress using different nanostructure‐based photocatalysts. Insights into the synthesis, band gap engineering, and mechanistic pathway with intermediate identification and mechanistic pathway for degradation of antibiotics such as amoxicillin, azithromycin, ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, and tetracycline. A comparative evaluation of various photocatalysts synthesized through hydrothermal, co‐precipitation, sol‐gel method, and thermal method demonstrates their effectiveness in antibiotic degradation under diverse operational conditions. Various metal oxides (TiO 2 , WO 3 , CdO, VO 4 , MnO 2 ) have attracted much attention for their degradation efficiency (80–97%) and thermo‐chemical stability but absorption only in ultraviolet region and low rate of visible light utilization due to high bandgap, which enforces researchers to modify the photocatalysts via doping, heterojunction construction, defect engineering, and morphological control to increase active sites and catalytic efficiency by means of extended absorption range of visible light and enhancement in redox potential of the photocatalyst. Recently reported photocatalysts, COF/MIL‐100/CuFe 2 O, PAC/Fe/Si/Zn nanocomposite, Bismuth/ Indium (III) hydroxide/ Amorphous MIL‐68(In), Sn‐doped 1D α‐Fe 2 O 3 nanofibers, WO 3 /Ag 3 VO 4 Z‐scheme heterojunction exhibited, 99% tetracycline degradation, ∼99% Azithromycin degradation, 98% ofloxacin removal, ∼92−98% ciprofloxacin degradation and amoxicillin ∼93%−97% removal, respectively.