Abatement of pharmaceutical compounds in wastewater using green nanomaterials: an eco-friendly alternative to conventional nanomaterials

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals and their remnants have been acknowledged for their ability to save many lives, but they have also developed a new set of emerging pollutants due to the difficulty in treating them in wastewater worldwide. Increased consumption of drugs has led to adverse impacts on aquatic ecosystems. Even at low levels, these contaminants cause various problems because of their persistent nature and long-lasting negative effects. Therefore, various conventional methods such as activated sludge process, chemical precipitation, membrane filtration, ozonation, adsorption, and photocatalysis have been proposed for their removal. These are limited by high costs, inefficient removal, the production of toxic materials, and the need for significant investment. Nanotechnology has begun to explore various effective strategies for treating wastewater with the help of various nanomaterials. Nanomaterials have been inspected for their potential to eradicate water impurities and improve the effectiveness of conventional technologies. However, the conventional methods of producing nanomaterials involve the usage of hazardous and toxic substances, which create additional pollution. Green nanomaterials present plenty of promising avenues for wastewater treatment and have been recognized to be efficient in providing clean and affordable removal of pharmaceuticals, with features such as increased surface area, higher reactivity, target specificity, low energy and cost consumption, sustainability, improved physical and chemical properties, and effective regeneration. This has led to the development of innovative trends for creating novel, environmentally friendly nanomaterials for the removal and degradation of pharmaceutical substances. This paper focuses on these new trends in the development of greener nanomaterials globally and evaluates their performance for the abatement of pharmaceuticals from wastewater. The paper concludes with the beneficial aspects of green nanomaterials over conventional technologies and the future scope of research.