Smart Adsorbents for Aquatic Environmental Remediation

A noticeable interest and steady rise in research studies reporting the design and assessment of smart adsorbents for sequestering aqueous metal ions and xenobiotics has occurred in the last decade. This motivates compiling and reviewing the characteristics, potentials, and performances of this new adsorbent generation's metal ion and xenobiotics sequestration. Herein, stimuli-responsive adsorbents that respond to its media (as internal triggers; e.g., pH and temperature) or external triggers (e.g., magnetic field and light) are highlighted. Readers are then introduced to selective adsorbents that selectively capture materials of interest. This is followed by a discussion of self-healing and self-cleaning adsorbents. Finally, the review ends with research gaps in material designs.

Automated summary

In the past decade, there has been a noticeable increase in research interest in the design and assessment of smart adsorbents for sequestering aqueous metal ions and xenobiotics. This review compiles and reviews the characteristics, potentials, and performances of this new generation of adsorbents designed for metal ion and xenobiotics sequestration, highlighting stimuli-responsive, selective, self-healing, and self-cleaning adsorbents. The review also identifies research gaps in material design.