Design Principles and Prospects of Advanced Materials for Water Pollution Control

Water pollution now involves complex mixtures (heavy metals, POPs, pharmaceuticals, microplastics) that conventional treatment trains often fail to remove when pollutants are dilute, recalcitrant, or transformation-prone. This chapter reviews material-enabled strategies built on (i) semiconductor photocatalysts, connecting band structure, charge dynamics, and ROS generation to performance gains from doping/defects, plasmonic coupling, and Type-II, Z-scheme, and S-scheme heterojunctions; and (ii) MOFs/COFs as modular porous platforms for high-affinity adsorption, ion exchange, and catalysis toward metals and organic micropollutants. It also links synthesis routes to morphology, stability, scalability, and recoverability (e.g., magnetic composites), integrates case studies on dyes/pharmaceuticals, metal removal, and microplastic mitigation, and critiques translation barriers (cost, long-term durability, fouling, ecotoxicity, regeneration). Future directions emphasize responsive materials, AI-assisted discovery, hybrid process integration, and circular-economy resource recovery.