Nanostructured electrodes for electrocatalytic advanced oxidation processes: From materials preparation to mechanisms understanding and wastewater treatment applications

The implementation of nanostructured materials in electrochemistry implied the enhancement of conversion yield in fuel cell, in electrosynthesis of oxidants and electrolytic treatment for environmental protection, while it allowed reducing the detection limit in electroanalysis. Nanostructured materials are becoming a hot topic of research, especially in electrochemical treatment for environmental applications that is strongly related to the rise of graphene and subsequent 2D materials that emerged in the last ten years. Nano-structuration allows bringing new properties of the materials such as number of active sites and conductivity improvement. It can therefore enhance the heterogeneous catalysis mechanism at electrode surface. This is primordial since it makes increase the rate of electrochemical reactions that can be the rate limiting steps in electrocatalytic treatment. Such advanced materials contribute to make advanced electrochemical processes as “greener” processes than the conventional ones. This paper aims to be a comprehensive, critical, and accessible review of general interest. The literature covers mainly the last ten years’ period due to the recent topic, especially the last five years with the considerable increase of number of publications in this period. The contents particularly devote efforts to establish links between the nanostructured-based electrode properties and electrochemical treatment efficiency through the mechanisms involved. The perspectives about mechanisms understanding and electrodes stability improvement are especially discussed.