Abstract

Photocatalytic degradation of organic chemicals enjoys fast development now and great achievements have been made over the past few decades. Photocatalysts, as the core of photocatalytic system, have been tremendously studied. Various methods to prepare photocatalysts have been developed for changing the photoelectrochemical characteristics and improving the photocatalytic activity. In this way, a great number of new photocatalysts have been prepared. The present review paper seeks to offer an overview of different preparation methods of new photocatalysts. The impacts of preparation methods on the physicochemical properties of photocatalysts are mentioned as well. Moreover, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these methods. The most commonly used photocatalysts are introduced firstly. Secondly, we divide all of the methods into physical and chemical preparation methods with each subdivided not strictly. The principle and main process of each method are described. Finally, we provide some comparisons offered by researchers among different preparation methods.