Nano-materials: Novel and Promising Adsorbents for Water Treatment

Recently, nanotechnology has been utilized in more or less all fields, such as physics, chemistry, materials science, biology, medicine, etc. In this relation, nanotechnology is also applied in the removal of various impurities/pollutants including pathogenic bacteria and virus from water and other water bodies. Among the various methods used for wastewater treatment, adsorption is found to be one of the better methods because of its low-cost and simplicity of operation. Recently, nanoadsorbents have been explored for the removal of various pollutants from waste water. In this paper, the utilization of nanomaterials, as an effective adsorbent for the removal of heavy metals, organic compounds, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and other pollutants, is reviewed and discussed. It is to be mentioned that adsorption capacities of the adsorbents vary depending on the characteristics of the adsorbents, the extent of chemical modification and the concentration of adsorbates. There are also few issues and drawbacks on the utilization of nanoadsorbents that have been addressed. To find out the practical utilization of nanomaterials as low-cost adsorbents on the commercial scale, more research should be conducted in this direction. This review article demonstrated that nanomaterials may be effectively utilized for the treatment of wastewater and may be the future novel and promising adsorbents/materials for water treatment.