Graphene and graphene derivatives for wastewater treatment

Abstract

In the postindustrialization era, water pollution is one of the major environmental problems that the whole world needs to be concerned. About more than one billion people around the globe are living without proper drinking water. The World Health Organization reported that the half population of the world will suffer freshwater scarcity problem by 2025, and therefore at the present moment, the reuse of wastewater with proper treatment is crucial for mankind. Efficient wastewater treatment still remains the biggest challenge for mankind as a whole. With the advent of nanotechnology, various exciting materials and methods are introduced to address the issue. Among various nanomaterials, graphene, a two-dimensional nanomaterial, seems to be a potential candidate for water purification owing to its various intriguing properties, such as high specific surface area, presence of active sites for functionalization, chemical stability, surface modification, higher electron mobility, and robustness. In graphene, many interesting mechanisms such as π-π stacking, electrostatic interaction, physical and chemical adsorption, membrane filtration, etc., to remove the pollutants from wastewater can be observed. Different graphene-based derivatives are also studied enormously in recent times for the decontamination of water. Currently, graphene-based filtration membranes and adsorbents are highly used for the efficient removal of hazardous heavy metals, dyes, and oil spills from contaminated water. This chapter discusses the basic idea about different types/forms of graphene-based derivatives along with their application in water purification processes. At last, the challenges and future aspects of the water purification process using graphene and its derivatives are briefly discussed. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.