Solar-Inspired Water Purification Based on Emerging 2D Materials: Status and Challenges

Water shortage and the energy crisis are two major global challenges in this century. The solution for water crisis should be based on a sustainable energy source. Solar-inspired water purification is an efficient and green technology for tackling the water challenge using abundant and clean solar energy through photothermal evaporation-induced water production, photoinduced antimicrobial treatment, and photocatalytic degradation of organic contaminants. 2D nanomaterials draw significant attention for their use these three water-purification methods because of their large surface area, broadband and strong absorption in the solar spectral range, and efficient photothermal and photocatalytic transformation. Herein, the recent development of 2D nanomaterials applied in photothermal evaporation, photoinduced antimicrobial treatment, and photocatalytic capability is comprehensively overviewed. Various strategies in enhancing the light-absorption and light-conversion efficiency for different 2D nanomaterials are presented. The challenges and perspectives of these 2D nanomaterials are further discussed for practical water purification. This Review highlights these green energy-driven water-purification methods based on emerging 2D materials.