Waste water detoxification by means of solar energy

High-energy photons from the short-wave range of the sunlight that reaches the earth are capable of producing electron/hole pairs in photocatalyst materials such as titanium dioxide. The oxidizing power of the holes is largely responsible for the oxidation in aqueous solution to CO2 of practically all organic pollutant molecules. The article describes the decomposition of model pollutants and the detoxification process of real wastewaters and in doing so explains the functioning of two principally different reactors for solar wastewater detoxification. (orig.)