The major challenge is not scarcity of water, but the continuous contamination of freshwater resources. It can be reduced through the treatment of wastewater.
However, since the traditional methods of water treatment is not efficient enough to completely remove the emerging contaminants and meet the strict water quality standards, the researchers at University of South Africa are working on the synthesis and application of nano composite materials to remediate heavy metals and organics from waste water using nanotechnology.
Everybody knows that water is invaluable resource on earth, and very essential to the life of every living organism. Many people on earth do not have access to clean water, due to high levels of pollution.
High amounts of metals such as cadmium, lead, mercury, chromium, arsenic often end up in water resources, creating numerous health hazards.
Since the removal of such contaminants from the wastewater, has become a severe problem in the world, nanotechnology is gaining increasing interest amongst the researchers in the world who have already tried numerous technologies.
Many nanomaterials have been developed to remove heavy metals from polluted water, due to their excellent features resulting from the nanometer effect.
Even the researchers at University of South Africa are also working on the methods to easily purify the waste water for making it consumable for human beings by using nanotechnology. They are working to on the methods to easily purify the waste water for making it consumable for human beings.
Nanocomposite materials are basically mixing of two materials in order to achieve tailor made properties, which are low in cost, most abundant and durable together, which can then be used to remediate heavy metals and organics from the waste water.
The phenomenon behind the remediation of waste water using nanocomposites can be one of the basic mechanisms of adsorption, ion exchange, photocatalysis and membrane separation.
Nanotechnology plays a huge role in our work. By working on nanoscales – which is a hundred thousand times smaller than a human hair – we can dramatically improve the material’s properties such as surface area.
Remediation of polluted water is only one step in solving the problem. Effective public awareness campaigns are also needed to educate the public on water conservation.
The research has been done so far on laboratory-scale and will be implemented in a pilot study with the support of industry in the near future.
(Ajay Kumar Mishra (MSc, MPhil, PhD, CSci, FRSC) is Professor in Institute of Nanotechnology and Water Sustainability the University of South Africa, Florida Science Campus, Johannesburg, South Africa)
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