Background

Water is necessary for the existence of all human beings on Earth. Yet, water is currently even more contaminated by a large number of pollutants, including industrial wastes, fertilizers, pesticides, pharmaceuticals. The supply of clean water is becoming more and more demanding, due to population growth, urbanization and increasing pressure from the agriculture, industry and energy sectors. Specifically, the World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that over 2 billion people lacked access to safely  managed household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene services in 2020. To reach universal access to these services by 2030, current rate of progress would need to increase fourfold, and achieving this target would save 829.000 lives annually. Indeed, one of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Italian Government also addresses the protection of the territory and water resources in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR, mission 2), identifying the reduction of pollution from water and soil and the availability of water resources as key aspects to ensure health for the citizens and to attract investments. PNRR intends to implement economic, environmental and social sustainable strategies to protect nature and biodiversity, soliciting the use of sustainable materials and energy from renewable resources. Innovative solutions and technologies related to water treatments are urgently required to evolve to meet the people needs. New efficient, sustainable and environmentally friendly processes are urgently needed.

The hierarchically porous materials developed by PHOTOPAD precisely intend to contribute to meet these ambitious objectives, by developing new biobased materials for water treatment that will overcome the performances of current adsorbents and the environmental issues related to their disposal or regeneration.