Nanomaterials show a better performance in environmental remediation than other conventional materials because of their high surface area and their associated high reactivity. Nanostructured photocatalysts, especially TiO₂, are widely studied for the treatment of contaminated water. They can indeed degrade organic pollutants and microorganisms. In the first part of this review, the fundamentals of heterogeneous photocatalysis are described, with particular attention to the most important recent progresses in the field of nanostructured TiO₂ for water treatment. The strategies to improve its efficiency and to enhance its photo-catalytic performance in the visible region are also illustrated. However, although the nanoscaled catalysts show considerable improvement in terms of water purification efficiency, their size remains the main problem in a large-scale process because of the need of a post-treatment recovery, necessary to avoid their impact on the environment and human health. For this reason, the immobilization of photocatalysts on different substrates has been drawing a significant attention. Considering the various substrates, polymers seem to be very promising. The most recent developments in the applications of polymer-TiO₂ nanocomposites for water purification are presented. Finally, the recent interest addressed to the use of molecularly imprinted polymers for wastewater treatment is discussed, showing preliminary results and future perspectives.

中文翻译：

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用于水净化的功能纳米材料

纳米材料由于其高表面积和相关的高反应性，因此在环境修复方面表现出比其他常规材料更好的性能。纳米结构的光催化剂，特别是TiO ₂，被广泛研究用于处理污水。它们确实可以降解有机污染物和微生物。在本综述的第一部分中，描述了非均相光催化的基本原理，特别注意了纳米结构TiO ₂领域中最重要的最新进展。用于水处理。还说明了改善其效率并增强其在可见光区域的光催化性能的策略。然而，尽管纳米级催化剂在水净化效率方面显示出相当大的改善，但是由于需要后处理回收，因此避免了其对环境和人类健康的影响，其尺寸仍然是大规模工艺中的主要问题。 。由于这个原因，将光催化剂固定在不同的基底上已经引起了极大的关注。考虑到各种基材，聚合物似乎非常有前途。聚合物-TiO ₂应用的最新进展介绍了用于水净化的纳米复合材料。最后，讨论了最近对使用分子印迹聚合物处理废水的兴趣，显示了初步结果和未来展望。