Applications of Nanomaterials for Water Treatment: A Future Avenue

Introduction

Rapid urbanization and industrialization of human civilization leads to the discharge of several hazardous contaminants and pollutants into aquatic streams, these effluents contains toxic wastes such as metals, organic impurities, etc., which directly produces a detrimental impact on the biotic resources (Mara 2003; Moore et al. 2003). The unmanageable discharge of pollutants and contaminants due to their severe toxicity and more carcinogenic nature as comparable to other water contaminants, metal ions can cause brutal health troubles for aquatic fauna as well as flora but it also troubles human health through the prevailing ecological food chain (Hutton et al. 2007). Thus, the instantaneous removal of these toxic pollutants from wastewater is a noticeable issue in the aerobic and aquatic world.

The severity of pure drinking water scarcity has to be looked at from two aspects: First, quantity of available water and second, the quality of drinking water. With the rapid development of industries, such as batteries, metal plating facilities, mining operations, fertilizers industries, tanneries, and pesticides (Lvovich 1979).

As nanotechnology continues to proceed steadily, the primary focus of the research agenda has progressively advanced from the fundamental discovery and characterizations to look into the opportunities of presenting nanotechnology and the resultant nanomaterials as the major key to address the challenges of improving global sustainability, particularly in a wide spectrum of pivotal areas involving energy and environment (Seckler et al. 2003).