Editorial Note: Strategic engineering and functional mechanism elucidation of advanced materials in adsorption and catalysis for detoxification of contaminated water matrices.

Abstract

Uncontrolled anthropogenic activities have contaminated water resources with emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals, pesticides, microplastics, per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and heavy metals, making them unsuitable for living ecosystems. Emerging contaminants pose a severe threat to ecosystems. Hence water treatment methods through improved efficiencies are essential for removing these contaminants at ease of application and at low energy. However, further developments and insights are needed to improve selectivity and efficiency by specifically tuning the materials used in these processes. Advances in material chemistry have created research interest and opportunities to manage water matrices effectively. Novel materials like MXene, Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs), Graphene, and Engineered Heteroatom biochars are being developed to remediate these contaminants. Material scientists currently focus on synthesizing novel materials for adsorption and catalytic applications. Still, there is a decreasing trend among the scientific community to discuss the chemistry behind these modifications in detail. To encourage the scientific community to focus on design and modification aspects, the special issue aims to focus on an in-depth analysis of novel material modification using advanced computational approaches and spectroscopic studies and applying the designed materials in emerging contaminant removal.