Materials for Wastewater Treatment: Design and Performance
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2026 | Viewed by 88
Special Issue Editors
Interests: wastewater treatment; adsorption; photocatalysis; heavy metal removal; pharmaceutical pollutants; biowaste-derived materials; magnetic nanocomposites; green chemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Materials employed in wastewater treatment include adsorbents, membranes, catalysts, and hybrid systems, each engineered to target specific pollutants and operational requirements. High removal efficiencies, selectivity of target contaminants, high adsorption capacities, and resistance to fouling are some of the operational requirements that researchers concerned with this topic are seeking to achieve. They can be realized through proper selection of materials and their modification. In many cases, the design criteria aim to achieve cost‐effectiveness, a large specific surface area, appropriate porosity (micro‑/meso‑/macro) for fast kinetics, and chemical and thermal stability under varying conditions as well as reuse. In performance terms, materials are often judged by pollutant removal efficiency (e.g., % dyes, heavy metals, and pharmaceuticals removed), adsorption capacity (mg pollutant per gram of material), flux/permeation rate in membranes, resistance to fouling, reusability over multiple cycles, and behaviour under real wastewater conditions (with competing species, variable pH, etc.). Recent publications have shown that materials design in wastewater treatment has shifted from using single adsorbents or membranes toward multifunctional, hybrid, or composite systems that combine adsorption, catalysis, and filtration. While laboratory results are increasingly promising, practical deployment still requires overcoming hurdles of cost, scale, long‑term stability, and efficient regeneration or disposal. This Special Issue aims to showcase innovative and cutting-edge research on advanced materials employed in wastewater treatment.
Prof. Dr. Vusumzi E. Pakade
Dr. Julien Vieillard
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- scale-up
- advanced materials
- adsorption
- biomaterials
- water treatment
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