Nanocomposite materials for dyes removal

Abstract

Most of the living organisms depend on water resources for at least their basic survival. It is a well-known fact that both industrial and human activities produce nondesired effects on several natural resources, some of them being very difficult to reverse. In this category are included water and wastewater containing pollutants such as dyes. As the hazards associated with the more than 100,000 different commercial molecules started to be known, many possible treatments for their removal have appeared. Some water protocols include the removal of pollutants either selectively or not, while other treatments are addressed to not only remove but also destroy the dye to more simple less-hazardous structures. There are also several biological, physical, and chemical treatments oriented to achieve dye’s removal, and there is a number of materials which have been made available for this same purpose. The nature of the materials is very varied, and so are the experimental conditions. Among all the possibilities, nanocomposite materials appear as convenient and promising options and they have demonstrated outstanding capabilities for dyes removal. They are composed of at least two materials: one acting as the filler or reinforcement at the nanoscale, and the other comprises the matrix. Final obtained properties are broad and depend not only on the nature of the components and their specific proportion, but also depend on their methods of preparation. Taking this into account, it is possible to design a composite material according to its desired application, with particular emphasis on its efficiency and capability of reuse. In this work we present research on nanocomposite materials for different dyes removal and future perspectives on this topic.