Interface-driven hybrid architectures for advanced water and wastewater treatment

The growing use of intractable pollutants, such as per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pharmaceuticals, and microplastics, has elucidated the inefficiency of traditional wastewater treatment systems. Modern developments in hybrid materials and integrative treatment systems, with particular focus on interface-based processes that control adsorption, charge transfer, and catalytic conversion. A systematic review of the literature from 2015 to 2025 was conducted, which put a top priority on mechanistic corroboration, performance measures, and the relevance of scalability. It has been demonstrated that hybrid architectures, including layered double hydroxides, metal-organic frameworks, carbon-based composites and polymeric hybrids, have significantly enhanced selectivity and reaction kinetics; in fact, most studies have reported contaminant removal efficiencies of over 90% in controlled lab conditions. However, some systemic issues persist, including instability of materials in complicated wastewater systems, unstructured mineralization of contaminants of interest, the formation of secondary by-products, and a lack of energy-normalised performance data. Photo and electro, catalytic hybrids, mixed-matrix membranes, and biohybrid reactors have the potential to be multifunctional in their operation. However, their application is still mainly limited to laboratory and pilot project work. Overall, the review highlights interface engineering as a critical design approach, at the same time emphasising the necessity of matrix-resilient testing, a life-cycle assessment, and reactor-level validation as the approach to narrow the gap between the commercially viable solution of water treatment.