Making Waves: Endogenous-driven Fenton-like catalysis-Turning endogenous water components as driving forces for trace-level emerging contaminant elimination.

The effective removal of persistent and trace-level emerging contaminants (ECs) from aquatic systems presents a critical challenge to ensuring ecological security and achieving sustainable water resource management. Conventional advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are hindered by a high dependence on external oxidants, leading to significant chemical consumption and secondary pollution risks for trace-level ECs elimination. This "Making Waves" article focuses on the innovative paradigm of endogenous-driven Fenton-like systems as a transformative solution. By leveraging catalyst design strategies via built-in electric field, these systems utilize the chemical potential energies of endogenous components in water (such as dissolved oxygen (DO) and ECs), thereby establishing an advanced treatment system using the endogenous-driven forces for the removal of trace-level ECs. We provide a systematic overview of the conceptual clarity, fundamental mechanistic paradigm of endogenous-driven Fenton-like catalysis, and critically examine its application scenarios as well as the merits/demerits compared to conventional exogenous AOPs. We further assess the challenges and future research directions toward endogenous-driven systems, extending beyond substrate-dependent catalysis mechanisms, operation stability, and reactor engineering, etc. Ultimately, this work outlines the pathway for endogenous-driven Fenton-like catalysis to evolve into a greener, and more intelligent technology for the advanced treatment of water matrixes with trace-level ECs.