Sustainable and Renewable Energy Engineering Department, University of Sharjah, P.O. Box 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; Sustainable Energy & Power Systems Research Centre, RISE, University of Sharjah, P.O. Box 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
Sustainable and Renewable Energy Engineering Department, University of Sharjah, P.O. Box 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
Environ Res. 2023 Jul 1;228:115919. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115919. Epub 2023 Apr 16.
The rapid increase in the global population and its ever-rising standards of living are imposing a huge burden on global resources. Apart from the rising energy needs, the demand for freshwater is correspondingly increasing. A population of around 3.8 billion people will face water scarcity by 2030, as per the reports of the World Water Council. This may be due to global climate change and the deficiency in the treatment of wastewater. Conventional wastewater treatment technologies fail to completely remove several emerging contaminants, especially those containing pharmaceutical compounds. Hence, leading to an increase in the concentration of harmful chemicals in the human food chain and the proliferation of several diseases. MXenes are transition metal carbide/nitride ceramics that primarily structure the leading 2D material group. MXenes act as novel nanomaterials for wastewater treatment due to their high surface area, excellent adsorption properties, and unique physicochemical properties, such as high electrical conductivity and hydrophilicity. MXenes are highly hydrophilic and covered with active functional groups (i.e., hydroxyl, oxygen, fluorine, etc.), which makes them efficient adsorbents for a wide range of species and promising candidates for environmental remediation and water treatment. This work concludes that the scaling up process of MXene-based materials for water treatment is currently of high cost. The up-to-date applications are still limited because MXenes are currently produced mainly in the laboratory with limited yield. It is recommended to direct research efforts towards lower synthesis cost procedures coupled with the use of more environmentally friendly materials to avoid secondary contamination.
全球人口的快速增长和不断提高的生活水平给全球资源带来了巨大的负担。除了能源需求的不断上升，对淡水的需求也相应增加。世界水资源理事会的报告称，到 2030 年，约 38 亿人口将面临水资源短缺。这可能是由于全球气候变化和废水处理不足造成的。传统的废水处理技术无法完全去除几种新兴污染物，尤其是那些含有药物化合物的污染物。因此，导致人类食物链中有害化学物质的浓度增加，并导致多种疾病的蔓延。MXenes 是过渡金属碳化物/氮化物陶瓷，主要构成了领先的二维材料群。由于其高表面积、优异的吸附性能以及独特的物理化学性质，如高导电性和亲水性，MXenes 可用作废水处理的新型纳米材料。MXenes 具有很高的亲水性，表面覆盖着活性官能团（如羟基、氧、氟等），这使得它们成为各种物质的高效吸附剂，也是环境修复和水处理的有前途的候选材料。这项工作得出的结论是，用于水处理的 MXene 基材料的规模化过程目前成本很高。由于 MXenes 目前主要在实验室中以有限的产量生产，因此其最新应用仍然有限。建议将研究工作集中在成本更低的合成工艺上，并使用更环保的材料，以避免二次污染。
