Qian Jieshu, Zhang Xiang, Jia Yuqian, Xu Hui, Pan Bingcai
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Wuxi University, Jiangsu 214105, PR China.
Research Center for Environmental Nanotechnology (ReCENT), School of Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China.
Environ Sci Technol. 2025 Jan 21;59(2):1060-1079. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.4c10073. Epub 2025 Jan 6.
For several decades, the methodology of complete destruction of organic pollutants via oxidation, i.e., mineralization, has been rooted in real water treatment applications. Nevertheless, this industrially accepted protocol is far from sustainable because of the excessive input of chemicals and/or energy as well as the unregulated carbon emission. Recently, there have been emerging studies on the removal of organic pollutants via a completely different pathway, i.e., polymerization, meaning that the target pollutants undergo oxidative polymerization reactions to generate polymeric products. These studies have collectively shown that compared to the conventional mineralization pathway, the polymerization pathway allows more efficient removal of target pollutants, largely reduced input of chemicals, and suppressed carbon emission. In this review, we aim to provide a comprehensive examination of the fundamentals of the oxidative polymerization process, current state-of-the-art strategies for regulation of the polymerization pathway from both kinetic and thermodynamic perspectives, and resource recovery of the formed polymeric products. In the end, the limitations of the polymerization process for pollutant removal are discussed, with perspectives for future studies. Hopefully, this review could not only provide critical insight for the advancement of polymerization-oriented technologies for removal of more organic pollutants in a greener manner but also stimulate more paradigm innovations for low-carbon water treatment.
几十年来，通过氧化作用即矿化作用来完全破坏有机污染物的方法已在实际水处理应用中扎根。然而，由于化学品和/或能源的过度投入以及碳排放不受控制，这种工业上认可的方案远非可持续。最近，出现了关于通过完全不同的途径即聚合作用来去除有机污染物的研究，这意味着目标污染物会发生氧化聚合反应以生成聚合物产物。这些研究共同表明，与传统的矿化途径相比，聚合途径能够更有效地去除目标污染物，大幅减少化学品投入，并抑制碳排放。在本综述中，我们旨在全面考察氧化聚合过程的基本原理、从动力学和热力学角度调控聚合途径的当前先进策略以及所形成聚合物产物的资源回收。最后，讨论了聚合过程在去除污染物方面的局限性以及未来研究的方向。希望本综述不仅能为以更绿色方式去除更多有机污染物的聚合导向技术的进步提供关键见解，还能激发更多低碳水处理的范式创新。
