Recent Trends in Development of Nanomaterials Based Green Analytical Methods for Environmental Remediation

Abstract

Background: In recent years, the occurrence and fate of environmental pollutants has been recognized as one of the emerging issues in environmental chemistry. A survey documented about a wide variety of these pollutants, which are often detected in our environment and these are major cause of shortened life spans and the global warming. These pollutants include toxic metal, pesticides, fertilizers, drugs and dyes released into soil and major water bodies. The presence of these contaminants causes major disturbance in eco-system’s balance. To tackle these issues many technological improvements are made to detect minute contaminations. The latest issue being answered by the scientists is the use of green nano materials as sensors which are economical, instant and give much better results at low concentrations and can be used for the field measurements resulting in no dangerous by-product that could lead to more environmental contamination. Nano materials are known for their wide band gap, enhanced physical and optical properties with option of tuneablity as per need, by optimizing certain parameters. They are proved to be good choice for analytical/optical sensors with high sensitivity. Objective: This review holds information about multiple methods that use green nanomaterials for the analytical assessment of environmental pollutants. UV-Vis spectrophotometry and electrochemical analysis using green and reproducible nanomaterials are the major focus of this review article. To date, there are number of spectrophotometric and electro chemical methods available that have been used for the detection of environmental pollutants such as toxic metals, pesticides and dyes. Conclusion: The use of nanomaterials can drastically change the detection limits due to having large surface area, strong catalytic properties, and tunable possibility. With the use of nano materials, lower than the marked limit of detection and limit of quantification were seen when compared with previously reported work. The used nano-materials could be washed, dried, and reused, which makes the methods more proficient, cost effective and environmentally friendly.

Biosynthesis of Silver Nanoparticles and Their Applications in Harvesting Sunlight for Solar Thermal Generation

“…Thus, they cause many difficulties for the human and the environment at the same time. Accordingly, in recent times, researchers have focused on the biological or green method for synthesizing nanomaterials [ 29 ]. In addition, the fabrication of nanomaterials using biological method is gaining more advantage due to its simplicity, eco-friendliness, low cost, and toxic chemicals avoidance [ 30 ].…”

Heterogeneous kinetics of CuO nanoflakes in simultaneous decolorization of Eosin Y and Rhodamine B in aqueous media

“…Around 100,000 distinctive dyes are prevailing in the environment and it is difficult to make them free from harmfulness due to the complicated structure developing from coal-tar-based hydrocarbons (Panhwar et al 2021;Sudha et al 2014;Tan et al 2008). Commonly, the dyes are examined as one of the preeminent contaminated assortments of wastewater being released into the environment without any prior treatment; in any case, numerous of them are mutagenic and cancer causing for human creatures (Jamil et al 2020;Kim et al 2012;Patil et al 2016). As it was reported, that around 15% of harmful dyes are being drained in effluent after the dying process (Pai et al 2019).…”

“…Amongst the various nanostructured heterogeneous photocatalyst, the exceptional ones are metal oxide and metal chalcogenide nanostructures which are broadly exploited for the almost complete degradation and reduction of hazardous dyes and other organic pollutants (Adekunle et al 2020;Fahad et al 2020;Mal et al 2020;Memon et al 2020;Pato et al 2020a;Singh et al 2020a, c). While looking at the brilliant properties of metal oxide nanostructure, the most prominent one is copper oxide (CuO) (Buledi et al 2020b;Chang et al 2011;Sidra et al 2020). Due to the broad-spectrum applicability, excellent proficiencies and unique characteristics, the CuO is the major entity which is massively dragged in versatile applications such as catalysis, degradation, gas sensing, adsorption, lithium ions batteries, energy storage and electrochemical field (Buledi et al 2020a, b;John and Roy 2020;John et al 2019).…”

Tin oxide based nanostructured materials: synthesis and potential applications

“…156 However, the use of toxic chemicals and a high energy need lead to a search for alternate synthesis methods. 157 Synthesis procedures like thermal decomposition and electrospinning require a high temperature and a lot of energy, which can prove lethal and relatively expensive in the long run. Furthermore, the sol-gel, hydrothermal and solvothermal processes involve chemicals that are harmful to the environment.…”