Functionalized Nanosize Graphene and Its Derivatives for Removal of Contaminations and Water Treatment

Abstract

The physical, chemical, biological, or radiological substance or matter in water makes it contaminant leaving no longer suitable as a drinking water as it may produce severe health risk. Two-dimensional (2D) carbon based material “Graphene” have attracted attention in a variety of research fields such as physics, material science, chemistry and engineering. Graphene with exceptional physical, chemical, mechanical and thermal properties, now has been widely investigated as next-generation adsorbents in both water and waste water treatment. The chemically modified graphene containing various functional groups, offer potential applications for water treatment due to adsorption of various inorganic pollutants and organic dyes. Also, the derivatives of graphene or graphene based materials such as graphene oxide (GO)/reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/functionalized GO are extensively used for water treatment as an adsorbent for heavy metal ions and organic contaminants. GO membranes are brilliant candidate for water treatment, such as sewage purification and desalination owing to very high mechanical strength, superior flexibility and hydrophilic property. Several past studies have been specially focused on the efficient exploitation of chemically modified GO, GO-polymer composite, GO-semiconductor composite and metal oxide nanoparticle attached with GO for contaminant removal from water. These GO based composites have shown outstanding performance for the removal of water contaminants as well as good adsorbent of various types of inorganic pollutants like cadmium, chromium, arsenic, mercury, antimony, lead, fluoride, zinc, copper etc. and organic dyes as methylene blue (MB), methyl violet (MV), methyl orange (MO), rhodamine B (RB) etc. This chapter is focused on the recent advances in water treatment using chemically modified graphenene/GO, and aims to provide insights into the developments in water contamination removal technologies based on these novel nanomaterials.