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As a result of continuous use of plastics in daily life, relatively small percentages of recycling, and accumulation of plastic waste, increasing amounts of microplastics (MPs, plastic particles with size smaller than 5 mm) are released into the environment. Consequently, MPs are emerging pollutants which represent a significant concern due to their widespread presence in soil, water, and air, and their long degradation time in natural environment. Long degradation time of plastics in the environment means that MPs are going to continue to  be produced from existing plastic waste, even in the unlikely scenario of no new plastic waste accumulation. Therefore, there has been significant interest in developing methods for degradation of MPs. Among various methods, photocatalytic degradation is of particular interest since photocatalysis can result in complete mineralization of the microplastics. In this talk, principles of photocatalysis for pollutant degradation will be introduced, and the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) under illumination will be discussed. Different photocatalysts for degradation of microplastics under UV and under solar illumination will be introduced. Factors affecting the degradation of different model microplastics (high density polyethylene particles, polyester fibers) will be discussed. Finally, degradation of environmental microplastics (samples collected from the environment) will be demonstrated.

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