Engineering Design Principles of Biomass-Derived Porous Carbon for Adsorption–Antibacterial Synergy

Abstract

Porous carbon obtained by biomass has gained great interest as an eco-friendly highly versatile material due to its renewable source, controllable pore structure, and modifiable surface chemistry. Although BDPC has found extensive application in the adsorption-based removal of organic and inorganic impurities, recent reports suggest that rational structural and chemical engineering can be used to confer intrinsic antibacterial activity to BDPC, thus giving rise to a synergistic adsorption -antibacterial platform. This paper offers an overall engineering design strategy of BDPC that incorporates the biomass precursor choice, regulated carbonization, and activation, optimization of hierarchical pore architecture, and heteroatom-mediated surface functionalization concurrently to amplify the contaminants adsorption and bacterial inactivation. The effect of the micro mesoporous structures on adsorption capacity and mass transfer and how surface defects and heteroatom doping may promote the bacterial membrane disruption and oxidative stress are systemically discussed. Key mechanistic pathways that control the adsorption kinetics, electrical interactions, reactive oxygen species formation, and contact-centred bacterial inactivation are discussed critically to explain the root causes of multifunctional performance. Moreover, uniform measures of adsorption efficiency, antibacterial performance, reusability, and structural stability are defined so that meaningful comparison of their performance can be made. Another issue that is approached practically is the challenge of scalability, environmental safety and regeneration strategies. This work has given concrete rules of designing high-performance BDPC materials with the capability of eliminating chemical and biological isobutyls at the same time by integrating relationship of structure, property, and functional aspects. The suggested architecture contributes to the development of the porous carbon systems based on a circular economy and next-generation water purification, environmental cleanup, and anti-bacterial uses.