Chapter 4 - Graphene-Based Nanocomposites as Nanosorbents

Abstract

Continuous discharge of environmental pollutants into nearby water bodies has become a serious environmental problem due to the toxic behavior of pollutants on human beings and animals. Among various contaminants, heavy metals and dyes are the ubiquitous and versatile pollutants of aqueous streams because of their use and discharge during the processing of industrial products such as mining, metallurgy, metal finishing, battery industries, automobiles, textiles, wool processing, leather tanning, paints and varnishes, fertilizers, and sewage and domestic wastes. Adsorption system has been extensively applied to remove these contaminants before their discharge into the aquatic media. Graphene nanocomposites, composed of both inorganic and organic moieties, have recently been examined as promising platforms for detection and separation applications. This unique class of nanomaterials can retain not only beneficial features of both the inorganic and organic components but can also provide the ability to systematically tune the properties of hybrid materials through a combination of appropriate functional components. Graphene nanocomposites have received much attention due to their unique properties, such as their extremely small size, high surface-area-to-volume ratio, surface modifiability, multifunctionality, excellent conductivity, low-cost synthesis, and great biocompatibility. Graphene-based nanocomposites have proved their potential for the extraction and remediation of environmental pollutants from aquatic media. However, their use and application at the industrial scale is very limited and requires more research to be performed in this field, and efforts should also be taken to carry out studies with multipollutant systems in both batch column modes.