Structure modifications of wood-based materials for water treatment applications: A review

With global freshwater scarcity and increasing water pollution due to industrial and agricultural activities, there is an urgent need for sustainable, high-performance water treatment materials. Conventional filtration and adsorption materials, such as polymer membranes and activated carbon, often suffer from high energy consumption, secondary pollution, and high production costs. In contrast, wood-based materials offer hierarchical porosity, natural adsorption sites, and tunable surface chemistry, making them a promising candidate for low-cost and environmentally friendly water treatment applications. In this review, we introduced the structure and properties of wood and described how these affect the preparation and water treatment properties of wood-based materials. We also summarized the structure design strategies for wood-based materials, mainly including delignification treatment, nanomaterials modification, functional group modification, and carbonation modification. In addition, we presented a comprehensive investigation of advances in the application of wood-based materials in water treatment with the aim of comparing, analyzing, and evaluating the practical functionality in sterilization, heavy metal ion removal, organic pollutants removal, oil/water separation, and desalination. Finally, we presented the serious challenges and new perspectives for wood-based materials in water treatment.