ABSTRACT

Water is an essential natural resource for living beings’ survival; hence, the quality becomes a major concern. The increasing industrial development is depleting freshwater availability and elevating contamination in the ecosystem, which is expected to worsen in the future. Water reservoirs are getting contaminated with pollutants like hydrocarbons, pesticides, pharmaceutics, cosmetics, heavy metals, etc. The toxicity of heavy metals may have adverse effects on the liver, kidney, blood, nervous, circulatory, gastrointestinal system, bones, and skin. Considering their adverse effects on living beings, the environment, and the ecosystem, water remediation technologies are of utmost importance. Extensive studies are being carried out to find an eco-friendly and economically sustainable water treatment approach. Several mechanisms, such as coagulation, adsorption, membrane filtration, dialysis, electrocoagulation, and nanoremediation, are proving their effectiveness. The adsorption and membrane filtration processes for the removal of pollutants with nanomaterials, due to their cheaper, easy to use, lesser treatment time, and higher efficacy, have been widely explored by the scientific community. The present chapter emphasizes the potential utilization of nanomaterials for inorganic pollutants removal from contaminated water, highlighting their applicability, advantages, and limitations.