Recent advances on sustainable bio-based materials for water treatment: Fabrication, modification and application

The increase in population growth, industrialization and climate change will lead to an increase in scarcity of water in the next few decades. To address this challenge, there is an urgent need to develop efficient and sustainable methods for purifying water with lower costs and less energy. The use of biomass as a raw material to produce high value-added sustainable bio-based materials (SBMs) is a win-win strategy to improve waste management and achieve environmental protection. Biomass materials are widely available, abundant, inexpensive, and have few secondary pollution problems, and they are also rich in carboxyl, amino, and hydroxyl groups, which are active functional groups for pollutant adsorption and chemical modification in water bodies. Despite the many advantages of biomass, there are some limitations of single biomass that cannot be ignored, such as limited adsorption capacity, poor mechanical strength, and chemical instability. Therefore, it is undoubtedly of great significance to explore and develop promising strategies for the preparation of SBMs and suitable utilization models for water treatment. This review covers the fabrication, modification, and applications of SBMs, with emphasis on recent advances in the use of SBMs for water treatment applications, such as membrane filtration, oil-water separation, heavy metal removal, organic pollutant elimination, disinfection and sterilization. The fabrication strategies for the preparation of SBMs from biopolymers are reviewed. The review also highlights some unique properties of SBMs together with potential applications. Finally, the prospects and challenges for future advancement of SBMs in water treatment and utilization are comprehensively discussed.