Hybrid Catalytic Systems for Multi-Matrix Environmental Remediation: Air, Water and Soil Treatment

Environmental pollution is inherently interconnected across air, water, and soil systems. Contaminants migrate through atmospheric deposition, runoff, and leaching, generating cross-media contamination scenarios that single-matrix remediation strategies fail to address comprehensively. Traditional approaches—such as adsorption, biological treatment, thermal oxidation, and pump-and-treat—were designed for specific matrices and pollutant classes, limiting their capacity to deal with persistent organic pollutants, mixed or diffuse contamination, and coupled pollution pathways. Catalysis has emerged as a unifying platform that can transcend these boundaries. Photocatalytic, electrochemical, enzymatic, and advanced oxidation systems are enabling pollutant removal in water and wastewater, while catalytic oxidation and filtration are used for gas-phase treatment and reactive barriers for contaminated soils. Notably, hybrid catalytic systems that integrate two or more catalytic mechanisms display synergistic improvements in selectivity, energy efficiency, and matrix versatility. Parallel advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are now expediting catalyst discovery, process optimization, and predictive modelling of pollutant fate, bridging the gap between laboratory and field deployment.

This Research Topic seeks to advance the design, optimization, and implementation of hybrid catalytic systems capable of addressing complex, multi-matrix environmental contamination. It aims to deepen understanding of how catalytic mechanisms operate across gaseous, aqueous, and solid phases, evaluate integrated system architectures that outperform conventional single-mechanism designs, and enhance scalability under realistic field conditions. By leveraging machine learning and data-driven insights, researchers can accelerate catalyst screening, improve process control, and develop predictive models that unify pollutant behavior and remediation dynamics across environmental interfaces. Ultimately, this collection aspires to bridge traditionally siloed fields—environmental engineering, catalysis, electrochemistry, biotechnology, and computational modelling—to accelerate the deployment of hybrid catalytic systems for integrated air–water–soil remediation.

To gather further insights in hybrid catalysis for multi-matrix environmental remediation, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
- Air treatment: thermal catalysis, photocatalytic oxidation, plasma-catalytic systems, and catalytic filtration for gas-phase pollutant destruction (e.g., VOCs, NOₓ, SOₓ, odour compounds);
- Water and wastewater treatment: advanced oxidation processes (Fenton, photo-Fenton, ozonation, electrochemical oxidation), catalytic membranes, enzyme-catalysed degradation, and bioelectrochemical remediation;
- Soil and subsurface remediation: in-situ catalytic oxidation, reactive barriers, biostimulated catalysis, hybrid abiotic–biotic systems, and electrokinetic-coupled remediation techniques;
- Cross-matrix approaches: integrated treatment trains, interface-linked catalysis (air–water, water–soil), and multi-phase contaminant flux management;
- Catalyst design: nanostructured, enzyme-inspired, composite, and bio-hybrid catalysts; surface functionalisation and stability under real environmental conditions;
- AI and data-driven systems: machine learning for catalyst discovery, digital twins for process optimisation, and predictive models of pollutant fate;
- Sustainability: energy and resource efficiency, secondary waste mitigation, life-cycle analysis, techno-economic assessment, and system scalability;
- Mechanistic studies: electron transfer dynamics, reactive species pathways, and structure–activity correlations across matrices.

Article types and fees

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

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• ... 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
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: hybrid catalytic systems, multi-matrix remediation, advanced oxidation processes, environmental catalysis, emerging contaminants, artificial intelligence, sustainable treatment

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.