Ball milling, as a cost-effective and eco-friendly approach, has been popular in materials synthesis to solve problems involving toxic reagents, high temperatures, or high pressure, which has the potential for large-scale production. However, there are few reviews specifically concentrating on the latest progress in materials characteristics before and after ball milling as well as the adsorptive application for aqueous pollutants. Hence, this paper summarized the principle and classification of ball milling and reviewed the advances of mechanochemical materials in categories as well as their adsorption performance of organic and inorganic pollutants. Ball milling has the capacity to change materials’ crystal structure, specific surface areas, pore volumes, and particle sizes and even promote grafting reactions to obtain functional groups to surfaces. This improved the adsorption amount, changed the equilibrium time, and strengthened the adsorption force for contaminants. Most studies showed that the Langmuir model and pseudo-second-order model fitted experimental data well. The regeneration methods include ball milling and thermal and solvent methods. The potential future developments in this field were also proposed. This work tries to review the latest advances in ball-milled materials and their application for pollutant adsorption and provides a comprehensive understanding of the physicochemical properties of materials before and after ball milling, as well as their effects on pollutants’ adsorption behavior. This is conducive to laying a foundation for further research on water decontamination by ball-milled materials.

Biogenic manganese oxides (Bio-MnOx) have attracted considerable attention for removing pharmaceutical contaminants (PhCs) due to their high oxidation capacity and environmental friendliness. Mn-oxidizing microalgae (MnOMs) generate Bio-MnOx with low energy and organic nutrients input and degrade PhCs. The combined process of MnOMs and Bio-MnOx exhibits good prospects for PhCs removal. However, the synergistic effects of MnOMs and Bio-MnOx in PhCs removal are still unclear. The performance of MnOMs/Bio-MnOx towards diclofenac (DCF) removal was evaluated, and the mechanism was revealed. Our results showed that the Bio-MnOx produced by MnOMs were amorphous nanoparticles, and these MnOMs have a good Mn²⁺ tolerance and oxidation efficiency (80–90%) when the Mn²⁺ concentration is below 1.00 mmol/L. MnOMs/Bio-MnOx significantly promotes DCF (1 mg/L) removal rate between 0.167 ± 0.008 mg/L·d (by MnOMs alone) and 0.125 ± 0.024 mg/L·d (by Bio-MnOx alone) to 0.250 ± 0.016 mg/L·d. The superior performance of MnOMs/Bio-MnOx could be attributed to the continuous Bio-MnOx regeneration and the sharing of DCF degradation intermediates between Bio-MnOx and MnOMs. Additionally, the pathways of DCF degradation by Bio-MnOx and MnOMs were proposed. This work could shed light on the synergistic effects of MnOMs and Bio-MnOx in PhCs removal and guide the development of MnOMs/Bio-MnOx processes for removing DCF or other PhCs from wastewater.

Peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation has gained increasing attention for its water remediation. In this work, carbon nanotube-supported FeCo₂O₄ nanoparticles (FeCo₂O₄/CNT) were prepared and showed tremendous potential as a catalyst for PMS activation. The synergistic effect between FeCo₂O₄ and CNT in FeCo₂O₄/CNT promotes its better catalytic performance than individual CNT or FeCo₂O₄. The synthesized FeCo₂O₄/CNT could reach 100% phenol removal with a k value of 0.30 min⁻¹ within 15 min ([PMS] = 0.3 g L⁻¹, [FeCo₂O₄/CNT] = 0.3 g L⁻¹). FeCo₂O₄/CNT can adapt well to a wide pH range (4–9) and a complex water component (with inorganic ions or organic matter). Moreover, the catalytic mechanism investigation suggested that both radical and non-radical pathways are accountable for the efficient removal of phenol.