Conclusion
Photocatalysis : from nanostructured materials to photocatalytic reactors

Since Fujishima and Honda's publication reporting the production of dihydrogen from water on a UV-irradiated TiO₂ photoanode, photocatalysis has seen considerable growth for the production of dihydrogen from water and for the photodegradation of pollutants. In the field of photocatalysis, TiO₂ is the most widely used and studied material. Nanostructures with controlled morphologies can be synthesized. Nevertheless, the electron-hole recombination rate is high, as in the case of most semiconductors. What's more, TiO₂, due to the value of its band gap, absorbs only in the UV, which make up only 4-5% of the solar spectrum.

Developing photocatalytic materials active under visible light would make it possible to utilize a larger part of the solar spectrum. A very large body of work reports modifications of TiO₂ by metal nanoparticles, molecular complexes...