The sediment-water interface in freshwater lakes is a three-dimensional interface based on the water/sediment facies. The micro-reactions, which are actively participated by organisms, and micro-environmental changes of physical, chemical and biological reactions on the interface will have a complex impact on the state and migration-transformation behavior of substances near the interface. In this paper, the courses of sediment-water interface research in the past 100 years, especially the development in the recent 20 years, both at home and abroad are reviewed from a comprehensive perspective. Firstly, the international macro-and micro-understanding of the physical scale and structure of sediment-water interface is introduced. The techniques and methods applied in the aquatic sediment-water interface research and practice, which are the sampling of interstitial water, multi-dimensional measurement of physicochemical properties in sediments and their structure characterization, static/dynamic processes simulation and others are selected for detailed analysis. Moreover, the advances on the migration and transformation process of phosphorus and nitrogen and other nutrients, heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants in aquatic sediment-water interface are discussed, especially in respects of modelling study of sediment-water interface process, quantification of substance exchange across the sediment-water interface, and relationships between the interface processes and lake eco-environmental disasters. Finally, the development trend for the future research of information acquisition technology for sediment-water interface analysis, the focus of quantitative research on interfacial substance exchange, and the application and construction of more efficient models etc. are favorably suggested.