E lectrochemical technologies are increasingly central to the global transition from linear water management paradigms to circular models that maximize resource efficiency and minimize environmental impacts, by enabling treatment, reuse, and recovery in diverse settings.In the spirit of the missions of ACS ES&T Engineering and ACS Electrochemistry, this joint special issue, "Fundamental and Applied Advances in Electrochemical Technologies for Sustainable Water Treatment and Resource Recovery", highlights how electrochemical approaches reshape water quality management and resource recovery across multiple scales.Within this collection, advances in electrochemical separation and desalination are showcased through new capacitive deionization (CDI) architectures and mechanistic tools.Contributions span bionic vein-shaped flow channels and optimized cation-exchange membranes for high-efficiency desalination of brackish water (10.1021/acsestengg.5c00450,10.1021/acsestengg.5c00417),asymmetric and membrane CDI systems for targeted removal of cesium and arsenic (10.1021/acsestengg.5c00488,10.1021/acsestengg.5c00657),operando ambient-pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies and pore structure machine learning frameworks that connect interfacial dynamics and pore architecture to CDI performance at scale (10.1021/acsestengg.5c00683,10.1021/ acselectrochem.5c00126).Another cluster of articles centers on electrochemical destruction and transformation of persistent organic contaminants, including reviews that summarize emerging directions in advanced oxidation processes.These studies collectively cover electro-Fenton systems based on nitrogen-doped ironrich biocarbon, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) particle electrodes in three-dimensional reactors, and TiO x -based reactive electrochemical membranes and advanced oxidation processes for degrading pharmaceuticals, chelated metals, and other refractory organics in real wastewaters (10.1021/ acsestengg.5c00543,10.1021/acsestengg.5c00634,10.1021/ acselectrochem.5c00311,10.1021/acselectrochem.5c00369, 10.1021/acsestengg.5c00892).Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) feature prominently, with studies on reactive electrochemical membranes for perfluorooctanoic acid oxidation, boron-doped diamond electrodes for short-chain PFAS degradation, and electrochemical reduction of PFOA in organic media (10.1021/acsestengg.5c00661,10.1021/acselectrochem.5c00121, 10.1021/acselectrochem.5c00275), while BiVO 4 photoanodes and graphene oxide-modified interfaces demonstrate how photoelectrochemical and molecularly defined active surfaces can drive targeted pollutant trans-footprint, and circular water strategies.
Chaplin et al. (Tue,) studied this question.