Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Mexico
Laura Hinojosa Reyes has been a research professor in the School of Chemistry at the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL) since 2009. Her research primarily focuses on developing advanced analytical methodologies to evaluate the behavior of emerging contaminants in the environment and innovative technologies for their removal through heterogeneous photocatalysis. She significantly contributes to the preparation, characterization, and evaluation of the photocatalytic activity of nanomaterials.
Since 2018, she has been distinguished as a member of the National System of Researchers (level 3) of CONAHCYT-Mexico and the Mexican Academy of Sciences. She has received five Research Awards from the UANL for her scientific contributions. In March 2019, UANL honored her with the "Flame, Life, and Woman" recognition for her career and contributions to teaching and research.
Dr. Hinojosa Reyes is the author of 110 JCR articles (H index 44) and six book chapters. She has coordinated 11 funded research projects, including Basic Science and Frontier Science programs from CONAHCYT-Mexico. Additionally, she served as a Guest Editor for the "Celebrating Latin American Chemistry," a cross-journal collection by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2024 and 2025.
Analytical approaches to assessing the degradation of emerging contaminants by heterogeneous photocatalysis
Emerging contaminants (ECs) in water raise significant scientific concerns due to their unregulated status and potential adverse effects on the environment and human health. Their low concentrations (ng/L to a few µg/L), chemical properties, and persistence hinder their removal by conventional wastewater treatment methods, resulting in frequent detections in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents. The environmental impact of ECs is linked not merely to their concentrations but also their continuous discharge, persistence, and high biological activity. Heterogeneous photocatalysis (HP), an eco-friendly process, has been evaluated as an alternative for efficient EC, offering the possibility of eliminating hazardous chemicals and producing valuable water for various purposes. To ensure the safety of treated water released into the environment by HP, it’s essential to conduct both toxicity tests and chemical analyses, as the high removal of parent compounds does not guarantee a non-toxic effluent. The lecture will provide a detailed overview of comprehensive analytical tools and methodologies that facilitate precise correlation between the degradation efficiency of various ECs and their oxidation degradation mechanisms in ZnO, TiO2, and g-C3N4-based photocatalysts. The application of different analytical techniques for pollutant identification and detection, as well as the characterization of intermediates formed, and ecotoxicity monitoring studies, will be discussed.