Methods and strategies for producing porous photocatalysts: Review

The desire to improve photocatalytic activity is keep growing. The Porous photocatalyst been synthesized with significant improvement in its surface area and reduction in the electron-hole pair recombination especially in semiconductors. This paper reviewed recent works on porous photocatalyst with a focus on its synthesis and fabrication methods. According to this study, the topotactic transition technique is the best method to fabricate metal oxide porous photocatalyst, while self-organizing blocks are the best method to fabricate polymeric porous photocatalyst. Particularly in growing and fixing of 1D semiconductor nanomaterials on 3D, and 2D semiconductors on 2D. The hard template method is the one who provides more capability for controlling photocatalyst particle's shape and size, but its template removal is non-ecofriendly, due to that; a soft template is considered more favorable. On the other hand, the etching method is appropriate for fabricating porous photocatalyst through a membrane, using the electrical charge created by moving electrons in the electrolyte as a driving force reaction.