Nanotechnology: Environmentally Sustainable Solutions for Water Treatment

Abstract

Nanotechnology, which refers to the techniques that suggest the ways to synthesize, design and control properties in the nano region, is the processes and/or technologies which are environmentally benign, improved and can be used in such a way to reduce waste generation, cut pollution and conserve natural resources. Nanotechnology has emerged as a most revolutionary technology in the world that provides efficient, cost-effective and environmentally acceptable solutions for the decontamination of water. Although nanotechnology has been used in almost all the fields like medicine, biotechnology, electronics etc., its major application to drinking water treatment has begun only recently. Although many physical and chemical methods have been developed till now to synthesize a variety of nanomaterials but majority of them have negative effect on the environment and social life. Majority of them require high energy consumption, need toxic and costly chemicals and produce hazardous by-products. Thus, it is desirable to find alternative sources of eco-friendly and renewable materials and to develop sustainable procedures for the treatment of polluted water. As it is not possible to cover all the methods which are being used traditionally or currently to decontaminate water, in the present chapter we have picked up only the recent environmentally sustainable methodologies for the removal of contaminants like dyes, heavy metals, anions and microbial contamination in water in which nanotechnology plays the vital role. In this chapter we have mainly discussed the role of nanotechnology as an effective solution for the decontamination of wastewater in a sustainable way.