Photocatalytic degradation of parabens: A comprehensive meta-analysis investigating the environmental remediation potential of emerging pollutant

The increasing prevalence of paraben compounds in the environment has given rise to concerns regarding their detrimental impacts on both ecosystems and human health. Over the past few decades, photocatalytic reactions have drawn significant attention as a method to accelerate the otherwise slow degradation of these pollutants. The current study aims to evaluate the current efficacy of the photocatalytic method for degrading parabens in aqueous solutions. An extensive literature review and bibliometric analysis were conducted to identify key research trends and influential areas in the field of photocatalytic paraben degradation. Studies were screened based on the predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria, which led to 13 studies that were identified as being appropriate for the meta-analysis using the random effects model. Furthermore, experimental parameters such as pH, paraben initial concentration, catalyst dosage, light intensity, and contact time have been reported to have key impacts on the performance of the photocatalytic degradation process. A comprehensive quantitative assessment of these parameters was carried out in this work. Overall, photocatalytic techniques could eliminate parabens with an average degradation efficiency of >80 %. The findings of the Egger's test and the Begg's test were statistically not significant suggesting potential publication bias was not observed. This review provides a holistic understanding of the photocatalytic degradation of parabens and is anticipated to encourage more widespread adoption of photocatalytic procedures as a suitable method for the elimination of parabens from aqueous solutions, opening new avenues for future research in this direction.