(11d) Redox-Mediated Electrochemical Separations: From Fundamentals to Applications

Electric fields and electrochemical reactions have the potential to unlock new separation technologies. Electrochemical separations can promote sustainability through the integration of renewable energy, plug-and-play modularity, and elimination of secondary waste. While electrochemical separations have been extensively explored for water desalination, their translation to value-added chemical manufacturing or resource recovery has been hampered by the lack of molecular selectivity. Here, we will discuss molecular engineering approaches to impart specificity, and the importance of elucidating fundamental intermolecular interactions. We focus on the development of redox-mediated electrochemical separations, where redox-electron transfer enables the tuning of interfacial selectivity, reversibility, and even the synergistic coupling of reaction and separations. We highlight the versatility of these emerging electrochemical separation processes, and their applicability across chemical and biochemical manufacturing, environmental remediation and waste treatment, and critical materials recovery.