Recent Progress in Nanomaterials for Adsorptive Removal of Organic Contaminants from Wastewater

Water being most vital component of life is getting contaminated due to inhuman disposal of toxicants in water bodies. Organic compounds such as dyes, pharmaceuticals/drugs, pesticides etc. are used for various purposes and become life threatening when dumped in water bodies without pre‐treatment. Removal of these toxicants from environment is complicated but highly essential for sustainable development. Various methods have been used for this purpose among which adsorption is the most simple, fast, effective and inexpensive method for the removal of such contaminants. Nanomaterial proved to be one of the best adsorbent due to its unique structural properties which provides large surface area and high adsorption capacity. The factors affecting adsorption along with adsorption mechanism is discussed in detail. Detection of the pollutants is also quite tedious work as pollutants are present in trace quantity. UV‐Visible spectrophotometry is widely used detection technique which is easy to operate, produce accurate results and cheap. The review emphasizes the use of nanomaterial as adsorbents for the removal of various organic pollutants from wastewater using UV‐Visible spectrophotometry. This review describes the recent progress in different nanomaterials (carbon, silica, metal oxide and chitosan based) for the adsorptive removal of organic contaminants (dyes, pesticides and pharmaceuticals/drugs etc.) present in wastewater using UV‐Visible Spectrophotometry. The comparison of morphological parameters, adsorption capacities and factors affecting adsorption for different pollutants are highlighted.