Analytical Quantification and Adsorptive Removal of Heavy Metal Ions from Water Using Advanced Nanomaterials: A Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64354/xxgxsg64Keywords:
Heavy metal ions, advanced nanomaterials, electrochemical sensing, water treatment, metal–organic frameworksAbstract
Heavy metal contamination of natural and engineered water systems remains one of the more stubborn environmental problems of our time, partly because the same ions that have to be removed must first be measured — often down to parts-per-billion levels — before any treatment decision can sensibly be made. Conventional practice has tended to treat detection and remediation as two separate problems, handled by different laboratories and very different instruments. This review takes a slightly different view. We focus on advanced nanomaterials — graphene and graphene oxide, carbon nanotubes, magnetic iron oxides, metal–organic and covalent organic frameworks (MOFs and COFs), mesoporous silicas, MXenes and various quantum dots — and we pay particular attention to the feature that ties their two roles together: the reactive surface. The abundance of accessible functional groups, the very high specific surface area and the tunable porosity that make these materials excellent adsorbents are, more or less, the same properties that make them sensitive sensing platforms. We summarise the principal detection strategies (anodic stripping voltammetry, fluorescent and colorimetric assays, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, and nanomaterial-assisted preconcentration for AAS/ICP-MS), then turn to adsorption mechanisms, isotherm and kinetic modelling, and the operational factors that govern uptake. A dedicated section examines the emerging class of dual-function platforms that detect and remove contaminants on a single surface. We close with the practical bottlenecks cost, regeneration, real-matrix interference and scale-up — that still stand between laboratory performance and field deployment.
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