Optimizing Adsorbent Synthesis for Sustainable Wastewater Treatment

Water scarcity and pollution are critical 21st-century challenges intensified by industrialization and population growth. Conventional wastewater treatments struggle with high costs, energy demands, and inefficiency against emerging contaminants (e.g., pharmaceuticals, microplastics). Adsorption processes offer a versatile, efficient alternative—yet their sustainability hinges on eco-friendly synthesis, regeneration, and reuse of adsorbents. This underscores an urgent need for innovative materials that balance high performance, environmental safety, and economic viability.

This Research Topic tackles the optimization of adsorbent synthesis to close the gap between lab innovation and real-world implementation. We seek advances in high-performance materials with enhanced selectivity, capacity, and regenerability, while minimizing environmental footprints and costs. Key challenges include:

• Identifying abundant, renewable precursors (e.g., biowaste, minerals).

• Streamlining synthesis for reduced energy/chemical use.

• Designing materials for broad-spectrum pollutant removal.

We encourage collaboration among material scientists, chemists, environmental engineers, and industry partners to foster holistic solutions that prioritize scalability, sustainability, and circularity in wastewater treatment.



We invite Original Research, Reviews, Mini-Reviews, and Perspectives addressing:

• Novel adsorbent design (bio-based, nanostructured, hybrid materials).

• Waste derived adsorbents (biochars etc.)

• Green synthesis routes (low-energy, solvent-free, waste-derived precursors).

• Regeneration, reuse, and circular-economy strategies.

• Sustainability metrics: Life cycle assessment (LCA) and techno-economic analysis.

• Real-world applications: Case studies in industrial/municipal wastewater treatment.

Submissions should bridge fundamental research and applied solutions, offering interdisciplinary insights into scalable, sustainable wastewater treatment.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: adsorbent synthesis, sustainable materials, wastewater treatment, green chemistry, pollutant removal

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.