places silicon can be used. But the issue with this approach is different materials
requires different skills to operate and hence technology. Hence scaling up is not the
meaningful solution. Fourth method is directing the research and development to the
earth abundant materials like iron or magnesium and its oxides. There are few
unconscious efforts made one this direction, however, efforts still for from
addressing the issue at global scale. Hence focused and committed research efforts
required in this direction of material abundance based research approach. Finally, the
problem of earth abundant materials could be solved by using above one solution or
combinations for suitable water remediation problem.
Our humble warning is to use earth abundant materials for sustainable water
remediation. Otherwise the water remediation process ends up like current
petroleum-depletion and new renewable solutions required in future. It is to be
mentioned that the main challenge to use earth abundant materials would be making
the materials high efficient like current state of art materials. It is not always possible
to make the materials high efficient, but the problem can be addressed by material
engineering such as nanoscale preparation, doping etc. By choosing earth abundant
materials based design, the scope, selectivity, performance, stability, reactivity
characteristics and electron flow of reactions of photocatalyst can be improved and
hence the overall competency of the catalyst among the existing one. We foresee and
attempted to bring out the clear picture of the earth abundance crisis in the heterogenous catalytic based environmental remediation. The emphasis mainly given to
material abundance in scale up and expect that it will be useful to selection of
materials for environmental remediation. The water quality is most important issue,
and it is directly reflecting the health of mankind and meticulous analysis of long
term impact of new earth abundant photocatalysts should be analyzed before implementation. The core concepts explained in this work could be extended to the other
existing technologies.
Acknowledgements We thank the editor Dr. Saravanan Rajendran for valuable suggestions,
feedbacks, and discussions. B.G.K Thank the P.S.R group for institutions for infrastructure and
funding.
References
Ajmera AA, Sawant SB, Pangarkar VG, Beenackers AA (2002) Solar-assisted photocatalytic
degradation of benzoic acid using titanium dioxide as a photocatalyst chemical engineering &
technology. 25:173–180. https://doi.org/10.1002/1521-4125(200202)25:2<173::AIDCEAT173>3.0.CO;2-C
Ambashta RD, Sillanpää M (2010) Water purification using magnetic assistance: a review. J Hazard
Mater 180:38–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2010.04.105
Arvidsson R, Sandén BA (2017) Carbon nanomaterials as potential substitutes for scarce metals. J
Clean Prod 156:253–261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.04.048
Balet L, Ivanov S, Piryatinski A, Achermann M, Klimov VI (2004) Inverted core/shell nanocrystals
continuously tunable between type-I and type-II localization regimes. Nano Lett 4:1485–1488.
https://doi.org/10.1021/nl049146c
212
J. Nimita Jebaranjitham et al.
requires different skills to operate and hence technology. Hence scaling up is not the
meaningful solution. Fourth method is directing the research and development to the
earth abundant materials like iron or magnesium and its oxides. There are few
unconscious efforts made one this direction, however, efforts still for from
addressing the issue at global scale. Hence focused and committed research efforts
required in this direction of material abundance based research approach. Finally, the
problem of earth abundant materials could be solved by using above one solution or
combinations for suitable water remediation problem.
Our humble warning is to use earth abundant materials for sustainable water
remediation. Otherwise the water remediation process ends up like current
petroleum-depletion and new renewable solutions required in future. It is to be
mentioned that the main challenge to use earth abundant materials would be making
the materials high efficient like current state of art materials. It is not always possible
to make the materials high efficient, but the problem can be addressed by material
engineering such as nanoscale preparation, doping etc. By choosing earth abundant
materials based design, the scope, selectivity, performance, stability, reactivity
characteristics and electron flow of reactions of photocatalyst can be improved and
hence the overall competency of the catalyst among the existing one. We foresee and
attempted to bring out the clear picture of the earth abundance crisis in the heterogenous catalytic based environmental remediation. The emphasis mainly given to
material abundance in scale up and expect that it will be useful to selection of
materials for environmental remediation. The water quality is most important issue,
and it is directly reflecting the health of mankind and meticulous analysis of long
term impact of new earth abundant photocatalysts should be analyzed before implementation. The core concepts explained in this work could be extended to the other
existing technologies.
Acknowledgements We thank the editor Dr. Saravanan Rajendran for valuable suggestions,
feedbacks, and discussions. B.G.K Thank the P.S.R group for institutions for infrastructure and
funding.
References
Ajmera AA, Sawant SB, Pangarkar VG, Beenackers AA (2002) Solar-assisted photocatalytic
degradation of benzoic acid using titanium dioxide as a photocatalyst chemical engineering &
technology. 25:173–180. https://doi.org/10.1002/1521-4125(200202)25:2<173::AIDCEAT173>3.0.CO;2-C
Ambashta RD, Sillanpää M (2010) Water purification using magnetic assistance: a review. J Hazard
Mater 180:38–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2010.04.105
Arvidsson R, Sandén BA (2017) Carbon nanomaterials as potential substitutes for scarce metals. J
Clean Prod 156:253–261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.04.048
Balet L, Ivanov S, Piryatinski A, Achermann M, Klimov VI (2004) Inverted core/shell nanocrystals
continuously tunable between type-I and type-II localization regimes. Nano Lett 4:1485–1488.
https://doi.org/10.1021/nl049146c
212
J. Nimita Jebaranjitham et al.