Designing photocatalytic materials with modified functionalities for the utilization of renewable energy sources as an alternative driving energy has attracted much attention in the area of sustainable wastewater treatment applications. Catalyst-assisted advanced oxidation process is an emerging treatment technology for organic pollutants and toxicants in industrial wastewater. Preparation of visible-light-responsive photocatalyst such as Mg-doped TiO 2 polyscales was carried out under mild sol-gel technique. Mg-doped TiO 2 polyscales were characterized by powder XRD, SEM, FTIR, and optical and photocatalytic activity techniques. The Mg-doped TiO 2 showed a mixed phase of anatase and rutile with an excellent crystallinity, structural elucidations, polyscales morphology, consequent shifting of bandgap energy and adequate photocatalytic activities under visible range of light. Mg-doped TiO 2 polyscales were investigated for their efficiencies in the degradation of most commonly used industrial dyes in the real-time textile wastewater. Mg-doped TiO 2 polyscales showed excellent photocatalytic degradation efficiency in both model industrial dyes (65-95%) and textile wastewater (92%) under natural sunlight as an alternative and renewable driving energy.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are one of the major pollutants present in the petrochemical industrial effluents. These VOCs have high vapor pressure, which makes it to be dispersed into the atmosphere easily. Chlorobenzene is one such VOC, which has an ability to cause adverse impacts on human health by damaging the central nervous systems. The available treatment methods are unable to effectively treat such VOCs in environment. Photocatalytic degradation is the effective and economical methods, which are being used for the treatment of such pollutants. ZnO is one of the widely accepted photocatalyst, but it has a limitation of wide band-gap energy utilization. This paper mainly investigates the preparation of metal-doped ZnO nanoparticles using solgel technique and its application for the degradation of chlorobenzene in an aqueous media under different light sources. Among the modified ZnO nanoparticles prepared (Ag/ZnO, Cd/ZnO and Pb/ZnO), Pb/ZnO was found to be very effective in the degradation of chlorobenzene and achieved up to 100% within a short duration (< 120 min). The Pb/ZnO was also used as a photocatalyst in a vertical continuous photoreactor for the photodegradation of chlorobenzene using LED light.

In the present research, titanium nanotubes were synthesized via the soft hydrothermal method. A study on the effect of the synthesizing parameters such as aging temperature and time of the hydrothermal process on the photocatalytic paraquat degradation was explored. Central Composite Design (CCD) was used to determine the influence of the preparation parameter on the optimal condition, main and interaction effects on crystalline size, percent paraquat removal by adsorption and photocatalytic degradation as responses. The XRD pattern of the synthesized nanomaterial reported the anatase phase of titania nanotubes. SEM image of the prepared nanomaterial clearly indicated the agglomerated with tubular structure. Band gap energy of the nanotubes was found lower than that of the pure anatase TiO

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