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Nanomaterials for water pollution monitoring and remediation

Article  in  Environmental Chemistry Letters · November 2016

DOI: 10.1007/s10311-016-0595-x

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Environ Chem Lett (2017) 15:23–27
DOI 10.1007/s10311-016-0595-x

REVIEW

Nanomaterials for water pollution monitoring and remediation

Xing-yan Xue1 • Rong Cheng1 • Lei Shi1 • Zhong Ma1 • Xiang Zheng1

Received: 31 October 2016 / Accepted: 2 November 2016 / Published online: 16 November 2016
Ó Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016

Abstract Water shortage and pollution are serious chal- sludge processes have many drawbacks including low
lenges for many countries. Nanomaterials are promising new treatment efficiency, high cost and secondary pollution.
tools for water quality management due to unique physico- Due to their unique physicochemical properties, economic
chemical properties, high economic benefit, high removal benefit, efficiency and environmental friendliness, much
efficiency and environmental friendliness. Here we describe attention has been paid to nanomaterials in water quality
four types of nanomaterials used for water treatment: management recently (Fig. 1).
nanofiltration membranes, photocatalytic nanomaterials, So far, many relative reviews on nanomaterials in water
adsorption nanomaterials and reducing nanomaterials. We monitoring and treatment have been reported. Andreescu
discuss their properties, applications and mechanisms for et al. (2009) reviewed the application of advanced nano-
pollutant removal. We also review nanomaterials used for materials in environmental monitoring; Qu et al. (2013)
water quality monitoring, notably nanomaterials used for the reviewed the performance of nanomaterials in water and
detection of trace pollutants and pathogens. These nanoma- wastewater treatment; Bystrzejewska-Piotrowska et al.
terials include carbon nanotubes, magnetic nanoparticles, (2009) reviewed the application of nanoparticles in envi-
noble metal nanomaterials and quantum dots. ronmental management. However, a comprehensive view
on nanomaterials in water quality management is still
Keywords Nanomaterials
Water treatment
Wastewater lacking.
treatment
Monitoring Here we present four types of nanomaterials for water and
wastewater treatment: nanofiltration membranes, nano-pho-
tocatalytic materials, nano-adsorption materials and nano-
Introduction reducing materials. And the nanomaterials used for water
quality monitoring are also discussed, including carbon
Rapid development of economy, heavy application of nanotubes, magnetic nanoparticles, noble metal nanomate-
chemicals and imperfection of water management policies rials and quantum dots. They are widely used in the detection
resulted in a series of water problems including water of the extremely low concentration organic pollutants, inor-
shortage and pollution (Savage and Diallo 2005). Con- ganic pollutants and pathogens. This review is an abridged
ventional water and wastewater treatment technologies version of the chapter published by Xue et al. (2016).
such as adsorption, precipitation, coagulation and activated

Application of nanomaterials in water

& Rong Cheng and wastewater treatment
chengrong@ruc.edu.cn
& Xiang Zheng Nanofiltration membranes
zhengxiang7825@163.com
1
School of Environment and Natural Resources, Renmin The nanofiltration membrane is a type of semipermeable
University of China, Beijing 100872, China membrane, which allows solvent molecules or some low

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24 Environ Chem Lett (2017) 15:23–27

pesticide wastewater, oily wastewater (Yang et al. 2012);

inorganic wastewater treatment and microbial control
(Kwon et al. 2008; Qu et al. 2013). However, nTiO2 still
has some drawbacks including low absorb efficiency of
visible light and low recycle rate. In order to overcome
above-mentioned drawbacks, several approaches have been
studied to modify nTiO2, including dye sensitization,
doping, coupling and capping (Gupta and Tripathi 2011).

Adsorption nanomaterials

Carbon-based nano-adsorbents

Carbon nanotubes including single-walled carbon nan-

otubes and multi-walled carbon nanotubes are good
Fig. 1 Number of articles published on the subjects of ‘‘nanomate- adsorption materials for the remove of organics and heavy
rials ? water treatment’’ and ‘‘nanomaterials ? wastewater treat-
ment’’ from 2006 to 2015
metals including Pb2?, Cd2?, Ni2? and Zn2? (Rao et al.
2007; Pyrzyńska and Bystrzejewski 2010). Su and Lu
(2007) reported that the adsorption capacity of carbon
molecular weight solutes or low ion permeation. Nanofil- nanotubes on natural dissolved organic matters
tration membranes could be used in the treatment of sur- (11.61 mg
g-1) was higher than that of granular activated
face water, ground water and wastewater. The most carbon (3.55 mg
g-1), and the average weight loss of the
common application field of nanofiltration membranes is carbon nanotubes (2.65%) was lower than that of granular
the softening of water (Fang et al. 2013). Apart from the activated carbon (6.40%). In aqueous environment, carbon
purpose to remove turbidity, hardness, fluorides, disinfec- nanotubes strongly adsorb low molecular weight polar
tion by-products and pesticides, recent studies have organic compounds due to the organic compounds–carbon
reported that nanofiltration has also being used for the nanotubes interactions including hydrophobic effect, p–p
removal of arsenic and emerging contaminants such as interactions, hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interac-
pharmaceuticals, hormones and personal care products tions (Pan and Xing 2008; Qu et al. 2013).
(Mohammad et al. 2015; Schäfer et al. 2011; Sen et al. Regeneration is a key factor determining the cost-effec-
2010). However, studies on the removal of the pharma- tiveness of carbon nanotubes. Lu et al. (2006) reported that
ceutical active compounds from drinking water and surface the adsorbed Zn2? on single-walled carbon nanotubes and
water by nanofiltration membranes are relatively scarce so multi-walled carbon nanotubes can be reversed by
far (Verliefde et al. 2007). 0.1 mol
L-1 nitric acid solutions and the adsorption capacity
Membrane fouling is still a great limitation in the appli- was maintained after ten cycles of regeneration and reuse. It
cation of nanofiltration membranes. Membrane fouling can suggested that carbon nanotubes could be regenerated by
lead to some adverse effects such as flux decline, cost reducing the solution pH value. And the adsorption capacity
increase and membrane degradation. Currently, some mea- of carbon nanotubes was not much fluctuant after several
sures could be taken to control membrane fouling such as cycles of adsorption/desorption reaction.
feed pretreatment, membrane surface modification, physical
cleaning and chemical cleaning (Mohammad et al. 2015). Metal-based nano-adsorbents

Photocatalytic nanomaterials nFe3O4, n-cFe2O3 and n-aFe2O3 are the most common
three kinds of iron oxide nanomaterials in water and
Up to now, nTiO2, nZnO, nWO3, nBiVO4 and nAl2O3 are wastewater treatment. Iron oxide nanomaterials could
widely used nanomaterials in photocatalysis. Among them, adsorb a variety of heavy metals (e.g., Pb2?, Cu2? and
nTiO2 is the most commonly used nanomaterial in water Zn2?) (Huang and Chen 2009; White et al. 2009); organic
and wastewater treatment due to its high reactivity, thermal pollutants (e.g., red dye, 1-naphthylamine, polycyclic aro-
stability and abundance as the raw material (Gupta and matic hydrocarbons) (Iram et al. 2010; Hu et al. 2011;
Tripathi 2011). Zhang et al. 2010) and radionuclides (Qu et al. 2013).
As reported, nTiO2 has been successfully applied for the However, the adsorption of heavy metal onto iron oxide
organic wastewater treatment, including dye wastewater nanomaterials is still at the laboratory scale (Xu et al.
(Nagaveni et al. 2004), chemical industry wastewater, 2012).

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Environ Chem Lett (2017) 15:23–27 25

Other than iron oxide nanoparticle, nTiO2, nZnO and used in the detection of organic pollutants, inorganic pollu-
nAl2O3 were also effective adsorbents for the removal of tants and pathogen, including magnetic nanoparticles, car-
heavy metals, metallic pollutants and radionuclides (Hua bon nanotubes, noble metal nanomaterials and quantum dots.
et al. 2012). Similar to carbon nanotubes, metal oxide nano- Pathogens detection in water is vital for human health.
adsorbents could also be regenerated by changing solution Nanomaterial-enabled pathogens sensors consist of recog-
pH (Sharma et al. 2009), and then the adsorption capacity nition agents, nanomaterials and a signal transduction
remained relatively stable (Hu et al. 2006). However, mechanism. Among the three components, nanomaterials
opposite results were also reported. Deliyanni et al. (2003) are used to improve the detection sensitivity and response
reported that adsorption of As5? on akaganéite-type of pathogens due to their unique properties such as optical,
nanocrystals can be reversed, but the adsorption capacity electrochemical and magnetic properties. Hahn et al.
would reduce about 25*30% after each cycles of the (2005) used functionalized quantum dots to detect single
regeneration and reuse. So akaganéite-type nanocrystals cells of Escherichia coli O157: H7 serotype, the results
must be replaced after 2*4 cycles of regenerations. showed that quantum dots were superior to traditional
fluorescent dyes in terms of sensitivity and stability.
Reducing nanomaterials Nanomaterials can also be used in the detection of
organic and inorganic pollutants. Nano-Au could detect
As a kind of effective reductant for pollutants removal in chlorpyrifos and malathion at per billion levels from surface
water, nanoscale zero-valent metals have attracted much water (Lisha and Anshup 2009a, b). Lysozyme type VI-
attention science 1980s. Iron is a metal with standard redox stabilized gold nanoclusters was used to detect Hg2? and
potential of -0.44 V (E0 = -0.44 V). It is thus an effective CH3Hg? (Lin and Tseng 2010), and the limits of detection
reductant when reacting with oxidized contaminants in water. for Hg2? and CH3Hg? were estimated to be 3 pM and
Now nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) has been successfully 4 nM.
applied for the treatment of water and wastewater contami- Magnetic nanomaterials and carbon nanotubes have
nated with chlorinated organic compounds (Arnold et al. been applied for sample concentration and purification.
2002), heavy metals, including chromium (Scott et al. 2011), Magnetic nanocomposite can be used to develop pathogen
cadmium (Scott et al. 2011), copper (Li and Zhang 2007), detection kits. Although carbon nanotubes performed the
silver (Li and Zhang 2007), zinc (Li and Zhang 2007; excellent sensitivity, heterogeneity is a great challenge.
Klimkova et al. 2011), dyes (Lin et al. 2008) and phenol (Liu The carbon nanotubes production and purification pro-
et al. 2005). Li and Zhang (2007) reported that the removal cesses often introduce contaminants and impurities, and
efficiency of eight metal ions including Cd2?, Ni2?, Zn2?, even the carbon nanotubes structure degradation. Hence, it
Cr6?, Cu2?, Pb2? and Ag? with nZVI is 36.5, 71.0, 92.5, 97.5, is necessary to produce homogeneous carbon nanotubes.
99.7, 99.7 and 99.8%. Due to the significant variation in
contaminant chemistry, numerous possible contaminant
removal pathways have been performed, including sorption, Challenges of applying nanomaterials in water
complexation, (co)precipitation and surface-mediated quality management
chemical reduction. In the study performed by Li and Zhang
(2007), as for metals whose standard potential E0 are very Although nanomaterials have shown great potentials in
close to or more negative than that of iron, such as Zn2? and water and wastewater treatment and monitoring cost-ef-
Cd2?, the removal mechanism for metals is sorption and fectiveness and technical obstacles are still challenges for
surface complexation. As for metals whose E0 are greatly their development and commercialization. The cost of
more positive than that of iron, such as Cu2?, Ag? and Hg2?, nanomaterials is relatively high. Many laboratory studies
the removal mechanism is predominantly reduction. As for have evaluated the performance of nanoscale zero-valent
metals whose E0 are slightly more positive than that of iron, iron for removing various pollutants. However, the
such as Ni2? and Pb2?, they can be immobilized at the surface research on the long-term performance of nanomaterials
of nZVI by both of sorption and reduction. for real water and wastewater treatment is still limited. In
addition, potential risk of nanomaterials is another chal-
lenge for their widespread application. The environmental
Applications of nanomaterials for water quality behavior and possible environmental effects of nanomate-
monitoring rials are still unknown. Human health risk assessment and
ecological risk assessment of nanomaterials are limited
Water quality monitoring is of importance to pollution (Moore 2006). Relevant laws and regulations were still
sources control, water quality management and public lacking. Hence, more studies about nanotoxicology and
health. Previous studies showed that nanomaterials could be nano-ecotoxicology need to be done.

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26 Environ Chem Lett (2017) 15:23–27

Conclusion Hu J, Chen G, Lo IMC (2006) Selective removal of heavy metals

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treatment of water and wastewater, especially dye Iram M, Guo C, Guan Y, Ishfaq A, Liu H (2010) Adsorption and
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iron oxides nanomaterials and nTiO2 have shown high Fe3O4 hollow nanospheres. J Hazard Mater 181:1039–1050
Klimkova S, Cernik M, Lacinova L, Filip J, Jancik D, Zboril R (2011)
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Zero-valent iron nanoparticles in treatment of acid mine water
heavy metals and organic pollutants by reduction or oxi- from in situ uranium leaching. Chemosphere 82:1178–1184
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