Electroactive biochars for green and sustainable remediation

Abstract

In the context of severe water scarcity and widespread pollution, a high-efficacy and easily available catalyst for environmental remediation is indispensable to ensure global human health and sustainable resource utilization. Electroactive biochar has emerged as a type of ideal option owing to its profitable features (field adaptability, carbon versatility, economic feasibility, etc.), which can significantly contribute to worldwide sustainable developments goals and carbon neutrality, especially in developing countries/regions. In this project, we aim to confer biochars superior electroactive properties to substantially stand out its maneuverable and economical merits amongst all carbonaceous counterparts (activated carbon, graphene, carbon nanotubes, etc.). Herein, we (a) innovatively promoted the fabrication of electroactive biochars and its customized modification to meet the demands for diverse operational conditions and refractory pollutants; (b) clearly articulated the key sustainable issues including selectively enriching effective active sites, pinpointing critical catalytic components, identifying generated reactive species, and manipulating specific reaction pathways (e.g., radical or non-radical) based on various experimental, methodological, and theoretical manners; (c) guided the forward direction of electroactive biochar from the ubiquitous and mature skills (i.e., optimization of reactive-active moieties and metal active sites) to the highlighted green and emerging technologies (i.e., manipulation of the defect level, heteroatoms, and conductive carbon matrices); and (d) innovatively elucidated the underlying catalytic mechanism of various electroactive biochars. The obtained outcomes of this project include: (i) accelerated growth and wider applications of electroactive biochar could be reached; (ii) unveiling the theoretical basis of electroactive biochar to direct its future development in research communities; (iii) fill up the connection between practical and theoretical basis of electroactive biochar systems to design practicable treatment processes in green and sustainable remediation.