Konjac Glucomannan-Based Materials for Hazardous Contaminant Remediation: Interfacial Mechanisms, Environmental Performance, and Translational Challenges

Konjac glucomannan (KGM) is a renewable polysaccharide with high hydration capacity, abundant hydroxyl groups, and tunable gelation, making it a versatile platform for hazardous-contaminant remediation. Chemical functionalization and hybridization with inorganic, porous, magnetic, photoactive, and photothermal phases have extended KGM systems from adsorption to selective ion capture, photo-assisted treatment, and solar-driven water purification. This review critically links KGM molecular structure and network architecture to contaminant speciation, interfacial interactions, mass transfer, and treatment performance, and assesses the evidentiary limits of fitted Langmuir capacities, pseudo-second-order kinetics, and FTIR/XPS assignments. Representative studies demonstrate strong potential for cationic-dye adsorption, uranium removal from carbonate-containing and real mine wastewater, and solar-driven evaporation. However, performance remains highly dependent on solution chemistry, material state, and experimental configuration. Future progress should move beyond record capacities toward quantitative structure–interaction–transport–fate relationships, discriminating mechanistic experiments, environmentally relevant concentrations, authentic-water validation, continuous-flow operation, contaminant-fate analysis, and process-level sustainability assessment.