First-Principles Studies of Adsorptive Remediation of Water and Air Pollutants Using Two-Dimensional MXene Materials

Water and air pollution is a critical issue across the whole world. Two-dimensional transition metal carbide/nitride (MXene) materials, due to the characteristics of large specific surface area, hydrophilic nature and abundant highly active surficial sites, are able to adsorb a variety of environmental pollutants, and thus can be used for environmental remediation. First-principles method is a powerful tool to investigate and predict the properties of low-dimensional materials, which can save a large amount of experimental costs and accelerate the research progress. In this review, we summarize the recent research progresses of the MXene materials in the adsorptive remediation of environmental pollutants in polluted water and air using first-principles simulations, and try to predict the research direction of MXenes in the adsorptive environmental applications from first-principles view.