Advanced Catalysis in Water Purification: Organics and Heavy Metals Removal

A special issue of Catalysts (ISSN 2073-4344). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Catalysis".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 101

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, School of Water Resources and Hydro-Electric Engineering, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an 710048, China
Interests: electrode materials; electrocatalytic oxidation; electro-Fenton; wastewater treatment

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Guest Editor
School of Geographic Sciences, Xinyang Normal University, Xinyang 464000, China
Interests: advanced oxidation process; heterogeneous catalysis; adsorption process; carbon materials; wastewater treatments

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The treatment of water pollutants, particularly the removal of organic compounds and heavy metals, is a critical mission to safeguard ecological security and human health. Organic pollutants can increase water toxicity, disrupt aquatic ecosystems, and threaten human health through bioaccumulation in the food chain. Due to the non-degradability and bioaccumulation potential of heavy metals, they pose severe health risks such as neurological damage and organ failure upon prolonged exposure. Addressing these pollutants not only restores the self-purification capacity of water and preserves biodiversity but also prevents public health crises and ensures sustainable water resource utilization.

This Special Issue focuses on the preparation of high-efficiency catalytic materials and their applications in organics and heavy metal treatment, aiming to compile cutting-edge research achievements and technological advancements in this field. Submissions may cover various catalytic water treatment technologies including but not limited to electrocatalytic oxidation, electrocatalytic reduction, photocatalytic or photo-electrocatalytic, Fenton and Fenton-like reactions, persulfate activation, etc. We particularly welcome the exploration of other innovative catalytic approaches for water pollution control. Original experimental studies, systematic reviews, and high-quality research letters are encouraged, with special emphasis on catalyst structure design, performance optimization, reaction mechanism elucidation, and practical application potential. We would like to invite you to share your latest research progress with the scientific community by submitting your research and review papers to this Special Issue on “Advanced Catalysis in Water Purification: Organics and Heavy Metals Removal”.

Dr. Xiaoliang Li
Dr. Yajun Ji
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • advanced oxidation process
  • photocatalysis
  • electrocatalysis
  • water purification
  • organic pollutant
  • heavy metal

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 4223 KiB  
Article
Scalable Preparation of High-Performance Sludge Biochar with Magnetic for Acid Red G Degradation by Activating Peroxymonosulfate
by Feiya Xu, Yajun Ji, Lu Yu, Mengjie Ma, Dingcan Ma and Junguo Wei
Catalysts 2025, 15(7), 637; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal15070637 - 30 Jun 2025
Abstract
The sludge pyrolysis technology for biochar production delivers dual environmental benefits, addressing both sludge disposal challenges and enabling environmental remediation through the utilization of the resultant biochar. However, the complex multi-step procedures and low catalyst output in previous studies constrain the practical implementation [...] Read more.
The sludge pyrolysis technology for biochar production delivers dual environmental benefits, addressing both sludge disposal challenges and enabling environmental remediation through the utilization of the resultant biochar. However, the complex multi-step procedures and low catalyst output in previous studies constrain the practical implementation of this technology. A facile sludge pyrolysis method was constructed to achieve the batch production of municipal sludge biochar (MSB) in this study. Compared to municipal sludge (MS), the resultant MSB showed a higher BET surface area, more well-developed pore channel architecture, and plentiful active sites for activating peroxymonosulfate (PMS). Under the optimized conditions (CMSB = CPMS = 0.2 g/L), 93.34% of Acid Red G (ARG, 20 mg/L) was degraded after 10 min, posing an excellent rate constant of 0.278 min−1. Additionally, MSB demonstrated excellent broad pH adaptability, ion interference resistance, reusability, and recyclability for ARG elimination. It was primary Fe sites that excited PMS to generate O2 and Fe-oxo species (FeIV=O) for ARG degradation. The reaction process exhibited minimal heavy metal leaching, indicating limited environmental risk. Therefore, the practical applicability of the sludge biochar production, coupled with its scalable manufacturing capacity and exceptional catalytic activity, collectively demonstrated that this study established a viable pyrolysis methodology for municipal sludge, offering critical insights for sludge disposal and resource reutilization. Full article
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