Advanced 2D Nanomaterial Composites: Applications in Adsorption of Water Pollutants and Toxic Gases

Abstract

At present, the world is facing the most challenging environmental issues including air and water pollution due to rapid industrialization, indiscriminate increase in population and energy demands. To address these issues, adsorption techniques that are simple, efficient, cheap with less environmental impact are employed for capturing toxic gases and water pollutants. Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials are emerging as a new class of adsorbents in contrast to the traditional adsorbents. This could be attributed to their high surface area-to-volume ratio, atomic-level thickness, excellent mechanical strength and entirely accessible active sites. Recently, many scientists have vested their research interests in atomically thin 2D nanomaterial composites for a variety of applications such as removal of toxic gases and water treatment, to name a few. This chapter mainly focuses on the state-of-the-art development of novel 2D nanomaterials, namely metal nitrides (MXenes), phosphorene and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) as potential adsorbents for the adsorptive removal of toxic gases from the air, and organic dyes, and heavy metal ions (HMIs) removal from aqueous media. At first, the synthesis and properties of various types of 2D nanomaterial composites used for the adsorptive removal of water pollutants and toxic gases are reviewed and outlined in brief. Then, the removal of HMIs, organic dyes, and toxic gases using different 2D nanomaterials composites are discussed in detail. The chapter finally concludes with current challenges and future research needed to further advance the development of novel 2D nanomaterial composites for environmental remediation.