ABSTRACT
The impact of contaminants in drinking water is a constant issue, metals along with pathogenic and emerging contaminants. The challenges here are separated into two areas: detection processes and contaminant removal mechanisms. Contaminants are not singular in nature so the detection system must be capable of uniquely identifying different contaminants by incorporating microfluidics into the system. This chapter will look at detection schemes, such as optical or electrical and how suitable they may be for the development of real-time monitoring. The removal of contaminants is a totally different technological issue. The dominant physicochemical water remediation mechanism are forms of sorption, and this work it is physical adsorption, a charge-based reversible process that is limited to the surface area of the adsorbent. Potable and wastewater treatment is of particular interest for aerogel research as the material has an extremely large specific surface area to volume ratio, potentially yielding a maximum number of binding sites. Finally, the removal of dyes from groundwater is presented, by photocatalysis and other degradation methods using nanomaterials. Recent methods used to construct/synthesise photocatalysts are by the preparation of nanocomposites, using electro/photo-deposition, solution-combustion, electrospinning, sonochemical methods, etc. are presented and discussed.
