Recent advances in the synthesis and regulation of 3D metal carbide-based hybrid architectures for water environmental remediation and monitoring

Functional nanomaterials have shown great potential in environmental science, including the water purification, environmental remediation, and pollutant monitoring. Metal carbides, also known as MXene, have 2D nanosheet structure, highly specific surface area, abundant defects, and active sites, as well as excellent electric and cat-alytic properties, enabling them as good candidates for the fabrication of 3D architectures for various applica-tions. In this review, we present recent advance (2017-2022) in the fabrication of MXene-based hybrid 3D architectures and their applications for water environmental remediation and monitoring. For this aim, firstly the fabrication strategies of 3D MXene architectures, including the self-assembly, templated synthesis, 3D printing, gas foaming, coating, and others, are introduced and analyzed. Then, the methodologies on structural and functional regulations of MXene-based 3D hybrid architectures are demonstrated, in which the regulation on the formation of MXene membranes, sponges, and hydrogels/aerogels as well as the regulation of functional adsorption, catalysis, and detection are discussed in detail. After that, the environmental science applications of 3D MXene architectures for the removal of heavy metal ions and organic dyes, desalination, catalytic degra-dation, antibacterial disinfection, and pollutant detection are presented and discussed. Finally, the challenges of this promising research topic are discussed and the perspectives are suggested. We believe that this work could reinforce the design and synthesis of functional 3D MXene-based architectures for energy and environmental science applications.

Automated summary

This review presents the recent advances in the fabrication of MXene-based hybrid 3D architectures and their applications in water environmental remediation and monitoring. The review discusses the fabrication strategies of 3D MXene architectures and the methodologies on structural and functional regulations. It also presents and discusses the environmental science applications of 3D MXene architectures for various purposes.