ABSTRACT
With the growing use of a wide variety of dyes and heavy metals in industry, their removal from wastewaters is becoming a major environmental threat, which is of great interest to scientists. Adsorption is one of the most economically favorable and technically simple methods for removing pollutants from wastewaters. Various adsorbents, such as activated carbons, zeolites, clays, biomass, functionalized polymeric resins, hydrogels, and also nanocomposite hydrogels have been used for pollutants removal. Hydrogels and nanocomposite hydrogels have been the focus of researches for the removal of dyes and heavy metal ions from wastewaters due to their characteristic properties, such as suitable porosity and high water absorption capability. The main aim of this chapter is to introduce the principle concepts of pollutants removal from wastewaters along with the basic concepts of hydrogels and nanocomposite hydrogels. The application of hydrogels and nanocomposite hydrogels in the removal of dyes and heavy metal ions from wastewater and aqueous solutions focusing on the recent advances in this field is also overviewed.
