Advances in the use of Nanotechnology for Water Treatment

Samuel Eshorame Sanni^1*Emmanuel Emeka OKORO²Emmanuel Rotimi Sadiku³Ajanaku O. Kolawole¹Mithun Nath^4,5Shivani R Pandya⁶

• ¹Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria
• ²University of Port Harcourt, Choba, Nigeria
• ³Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa
• ⁴Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
• ⁵Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
• ⁶Narnarayan Shastri Institute of Technology, Ahmedabad, India

Despite its necessity, the sustainable use of nanotechnology for water remediation has continued to gain appreciable interests owing to the ill-fated consequences rendered by contaminated water to human health, aquatic lives, equipment, the ecosystem and environment. Water treatment techniques range from chemical to mechanical, physical and biological methods. However, in spite of the continuous attempts to address water pollution using existing technologies, water contamination remains a situation that is created by mankind as informed by the constant change in technological civilization, hence the need to develop improved techniques for providing safe water for use.Concerted efforts in current research are often tailored towards the development of nontoxic, benign or green nanomaterials for the advanced treatment of contaminated/polluted water. In lieu of the fact that these efforts have been directed at stripping contaminants and pollutants such as heavy metals, bacteria, dyes, antibiotics, CO2, and other hazardous/harmful constituents, the common goal still remains-ensuring the availability of safe water for use via the development of tunable nanostructures which in turn brings about a healthy environment while ensuring zero tolerance for toxins or contaminants which seem to threaten human/aquatic existence and well-being [1][2][3].In all certainty, despite bearing in mind the impossibility of tendering all the most sophisticated recent and viable nanotechnology-approaches for water treatment in one collection, the editors and authors of this special issue, worked assiduously to provide readers with a more realistic background/framework of nanotechnology applications in water treatment with case studies from an industrial perspective. It also provides a background that is entrenched in ensuring a good selection criteria for administering or ranking nanotechnologies for specific water treatment applications.The opening paper of this special issue, by Olawade et al. (doi: 10.3389/fnano.2024.1427843), is a review paper that addressed key aspects related to the use of nanoparticles for microbial control in contaminated water with insights into their applications, antimicrobial mechanisms and ecological implications. Commonly used nanoparticles such as Ag-, Cu-, TiO2-NPs, and CNTs in water treatment applications were discussed. Issues related to cell membrane damage, the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as well as NP-interactions with metabolic processes were also highlighted. In addition, the ecological implications of nanoparticles' release into the environment, their environmental persistence, toxicity to nontarget organisms and some regulatory challenges were critiqued with insights into some future The approach adopted in this study provided some essential insights into the use of the new synthetic adsorbent for the degradation of MB, where the highest photocatalytic degradation rates were recorded for the lowest nano TiO2-coated CF composite. The authors alluded that the synergistic interaction between the CF and TiO2 NPs bearing uniform morphology alongside a well-defined crystalline anatase structure, is the key reason for the remarkable performance of the CF-composite.New methods for tackling wastewater pollution challenges range from data-centric intelligent systems for water pollution control, machine learning approaches for optimizing the best material characteristics for selective contaminant removal, the use of nano-modified, polymeric materials [4], zeolites, metal organic frame works, metal organic gels, hydrogels, aerogels, facile and bottom-up design strategies for the fabrication of biocomposite materials with functionally tailored properties [5][6] are constantly being developed and tried as emerging techniques with great potentials for redeeming wastewater for safe use.Finally, the editors are appreciative of the privilege granted by Frontiers in nanotechnology and Frontiers in Chemical Engineering to unveil the aforementioned discourses which have contributed immensely to current literature on the subject. It is also believed that the thoughts provided in all the published articles will pave the way forward for future research in addressing the emerging toxins and contaminants that are seemingly recalcitrant to existing nanotechnologies adopted in wastewater treatment applications.