Nanotechnology in Wastewater Management: A New Paradigm Towards Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

Clean and safe water is a fundamental human need for multi-faceted development of society and a thriving economy. Brisk rises in populations, expanding industrialization, urbanization and extensive agriculture practices have resulted in the generation of wastewater which have not only made the water dirty or polluted, but also deadly. Millions of people die every year due to diseases communicated through consumption of water contaminated by deleterious pathogens. Although various methods for wastewater treatment have been explored in the last few decades but their use is restrained by many limitations including use of chemicals, formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs), time consumption and expensiveness. Nanotechnology, manipulation of matter at a molecular or an atomic level to craft new structures, devices and systems having superior electronic, optical, magnetic, conductive and mechanical properties, is emerging as a promising technology, which has demonstrated remarkable feats in various fields including wastewater treatment. Nanomaterials encompass a high surface to volume ratio, a high sensitivity and reactivity, a high adsorption capacity, and ease of functionalization which makes them suitable for application in wastewater treatment. In this article we have reviewed the techniques being developed for wastewater treatment using nanotechnology based on adsorption and biosorption, nanofiltration, photocatalysis, disinfection and sensing technology. Furthermore, this review also highlights the fate of the nanomaterials in wastewater treatment as well as risks associated with their use.

Functionalized Magnetic Nanomaterials in Agricultural Applications

“…Nanomaterials having at least one dimension below 100 nm exhibiting tunable nanomorphologies and multifunctionalities have emerged as highly promising adsorbents for the removal of toxic metal elements and organic contaminants found in extremely low concentrations in wastewater [4][5][6][7][8]. Their high specific surface area and diversity with respect to surface functionalization provide unique physicochemical properties to these materials, rendering them highly effective in water remediation processes.…”

Aqueous Adsorption of Heavy Metals on Metal Sulfide Nanomaterials: Synthesis and Application

“…However, due of the inherent drawbacks of bulk materials, nanosized materials are receiving a lot of attention. Due to their fine particle size, large surface area, high surface-to-volume ratios, robust sensitivity and reactivity, high adsorption capacity, ease of functionalization, and regulated deliverability, nanoparticles including MS-NMs have shown tremendous promise for treating polluted aquatic systems as compared to bulk particles [82,100]. The binding of inorganic shells and organic molecules to the surface of MS-NMs stabilizes and inhibits the oxidation of nanoparticles [49].…”

“…For example, the adsorption kinetics of FeS NMs for divalent Pb 2+ is fast due to soft-soft interactions, leading to Pb-S bonds' easy formation and surface adsorption [94]. However, surface complexation between the FeS and Pb (II) also ensues at the surface of FeS NCs [100]. Cr (VI) adsorption is usually achieved due to surface adsorption [62,91] and redox reaction in which Cr (VI) is reduced to Cr (III), and Fe (II) is oxidized to Fe (III), forming mixed iron-chromium oxides/hydroxides [34,62,82,91].…”

Unlocking the potential of biosynthesized zinc oxide nanoparticles for degradation of synthetic organic dyes as wastewater pollutants

“…This has become a major concern for developing countries. The need to use safe and clean water leads us to approach methods of getting clean water (Brame et al 2011;Jain et al 2021).…”