Scaling up Piezocatalytic Water Decontamination: Challenges and Opportunities

The large-scale development of piezocatalytic water treatment technologies is emerging as a pivotal pathway for integrating effective water pollution control and sustainable energy utilization. This field holds substantial promise for shaping future water treatment systems that are energy-efficient, environmentally sustainable, and scalable in engineering. Here, the key scientific and technological bottlenecks that hinder the transition of piezocatalysis from fundamental laboratory research to practical engineering applications are critically revisited. We systematically examine multi-level mechanistic insights into force–electric–chemical coupling, scalable fabrication strategies for catalytic materials, principles for reactor scale-up and material–equipment compatibility, and sustainability assessment methodologies grounded in life-cycle assessment and techno-economic analysis. Building on this foundation, several priorities for future research are further outlined, including long-term validation under realistic operating conditions, multi-level mechanistic elucidation, establishment of full-process safety assessment frameworks, and development of standardized sustainability evaluation systems. Collectively, these efforts will provide both a theoretical basis and an actionable technological roadmap for moving piezocatalytic water treatment technologies toward engineering implementation.