Recent advances in manganese-based materials for water remediation: Multipollutant adsorption and catalytic oxidation

Human activities, particularly mining, textile production, and agrochemical use, continuously release pollutants such as heavy metal ions, antibiotics, and organic dyes into water bodies, resulting in complex mixtures that exhibit synergistic toxicity and pose significant risks to both ecosystems and human health. To address this challenge, manganese-based materials have emerged as promising candidates for wastewater treatment due to their abundant natural reserves (0.08 %-0.13 % crustal abundance), unique structural properties (e.g., multivalency, polycrystallinity, multidimensionality), and superior adsorption (>85 % removal efficiency for Pb²⁺ and Cr⁶⁺) and catalytic (>90 % degradation efficiency for methylene blue and sulfamethoxazole) performance. Modifications such as oxygen vacancy (OV) introduction, semiconductor heterojunction construction, or integration with porous matrices significantly enhance their electron-migration efficiency and catalytic stability. Through light-electric field coupling-enabled oxidant activation (e.g., peroxymonosulfate, hydrogen peroxide) driving redox cycles, the modified Mn-based materials achieve synergistic adsorption-catalysis for deep pollutant mineralization. This review systematically examines the origin, structural properties, and modification strategies of Mn-based materials, elucidating dual remediation mechanisms: tunable porosity and abundant active sites enabling efficient adsorption, and multivalent transitions driving oxidant-activated reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation for advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). Collectively, these materials demonstrate significant potential for complex pollution remediation and resource recovery.