Rational Design Of Composite Nanomaterials For Water Treatment Applications

Water quantity and quality have been affected in communities all around the world due to population growth, pollution, changes in land use, and climate change. In order to cope with existing and anticipated water demands and shortages, the use of treated or reclaimed water is an ongoing alternative that has helped communities all over the world address this problem. The adaptation of nanotechnology to traditional water and wastewater treatment processes offers new opportunities in technological developments. Unique size-dependent properties such as: high surface to mass ratio, high reactivity, high sorption capacities, fast dissolution, superparamagnetism, among others, provide high-tech efficient materials for water reuse applications. Examples include nanoadsorbents, functionalized surfaces, nanocatalysts, antimicrobial coatings and membranes that can be incorporated into existing water treatment technologies. Added to this, the tailored combination of different properties upon the compositing of nanomaterials provides an endless combination of multifunctionality that can be aimed at specific treatment processes (e.g., membrane fouling and selective removal of emerging contaminants). Adapting advanced nanotechnology into existing water reuse processes represents an incremental improvement to current infrastructure with minimum alterations, while also promoting water reuse and a higher water recovery percentage. The present work aims to understand the chemistry behind current water treatment problems in order to design a new generation of improved composite nanomaterials that can enhance their solution