Nanoadsorbents for environmental remediation of polluting agents

TL;DR: The use of promising matrices-based nanotechnology can contribute to enhance the already existent strategies to monitor, prevent, and remove high-risk and toxic substances in water as discussed by the authors .

Abstract: In recent years, water pollution has become a serious environmental issue. Accelerated globalization and modern lifestyle promotes the unconscious use of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) (e.g., dyes, detergents, soaps, shampoos, antibiotics, medicines, household cleaning and so on). These compounds constitute a broad set of emerging pollutants with direct ingress into aquatic environments, precipitation on root surface iron plaque, absorption, and degradation by plants due to their high occurrence not only in seawater or wastewater treatment plants but also in drinking water. Novel and low-cost technologies for the extenuation of water contaminants are strongly required to satisfy the current demand of clean and freshwater. Intensive human interventions include the use of nanotechnology as efficient strategy to face this global challenge. The use of promising matrices-based nanotechnology can contribute to enhance the already existent strategies to monitor, prevent, and remove high-risk and toxic substances in water. Nanoadsorbent materials have been successfully used for water remediation approaches possess distinctive features in physiochemical properties, for instance, small size (1–100 nm) and high surface area, high catalyst activity and superior removal efficiency compared with bulk systems. This chapter presents an overview of the occurrence of potential contaminants in water and the use of nanoadsorbents with special emphasis in carbon-based and nanoparticle-based materials as contaminant mitigators in aqueous media.