Agricultural development, extensive industrialization, and rapid growth of the global population have inadvertently been accompanied by environmental pollution. Water pollution is exacerbated by the decreasing ability of traditional treatment methods to comply with tightening environmental standards. This review provides a comprehensive description of the principles and applications of electrochemical methods for water purification, ion separations, and energy conversion. Electrochemical methods have attractive features such as compact size, chemical selectivity, broad applicability, and reduced generation of secondary waste. Perhaps the greatest advantage of electrochemical methods, however, is that they remove contaminants directly from the water, while other technologies extract the water from the contaminants, which enables efficient removal of trace pollutants. The review begins with an overview of conventional electrochemical methods, which drive chemical or physical transformations via Faradaic reactions at electrodes, and proceeds to a detailed examination of the two primary mechanisms by which contaminants are separated in nondestructive electrochemical processes, namely electrokinetics and electrosorption. In these sections, special attention is given to emerging methods, such as shock electrodialysis and Faradaic electrosorption. Given the importance of generating clean, renewable energy, which may sometimes be combined with water purification, the review also discusses inverse methods of electrochemical energy conversion based on reverse electrosorption, electrowetting, and electrokinetic phenomena. The review concludes with a discussion of technology comparisons, remaining challenges, and potential innovations for the field such as process intensification and technoeconomic optimization.

中文翻译：

---

用于水净化、离子分离和能量转换的电化学方法

农业的发展、粗放的工业化和全球人口的快速增长都在不经意间伴随着环境污染。传统处理方法满足日益严格的环境标准的能力下降，加剧了水污染。这篇综述全面描述了水净化、离子分离和能量转换的电化学方法的原理和应用。电化学方法具有体积小、化学选择性好、适用性广、减少二次废物产生等吸引人的特点。然而，也许电化学方法的最大优势在于它们可以直接从水中去除污染物，而其他技术则是从水中提取污染物，从而有效去除痕量污染物。该综述首先概述了传统的电化学方法，这些方法通过电极上的法拉第反应驱动化学或物理转化，然后详细检查了在非破坏性电化学过程中分离污染物的两种主要机制，即电动学和电吸附。在这些部分中，特别关注新兴方法，例如冲击电渗析和法拉第电吸附。鉴于产生清洁、可再生能源的重要性，这有时可能与水净化相结合，该综述还讨论了基于反向电吸附、电润湿和电动现象的电化学能量转换的逆向方法。