A Comprehensive Review on Graphene Oxide Based Nanocomposites for Wastewater Treatment

Abstract With the paramount development of industry and agriculture sector, levels of different pollutants like, heavy metal ions, pharmaceuticals, organic dyes, biological waste and other pollutants are becoming serious. The ecosystem and human health suffered greatly from the adverse effects of these pollutants. The disposal of these pollutants has become an urgent issue for the human society. Graphene oxide base nanocomposites have generated an excellent extent of focus as desirable alternatives for the adsorptive elimination of contaminants from aqueous systems owing to their enhanced surface area and multiple functional groups for adsorption. Graphene oxide (GO) as a graphene derivative exhibited superior features as obtainable in a graphene sheet. Moreover, the addition of oxygen functional group at the edges and basal plane of graphene further enhanced the efficiency of the graphene by providing sites for the attachment of different metals on the surface. On the underlying adsorption processes, graphene-based nanocomposites for specific contaminants are designed and currently employed for wastewater treatment. This review presents the ongoing development of GO base nanocomposites and their useful applications, understanding how well graphene-based nanocomposites adsorb pollutants and how that relates to the ways in which pollutants interact with adsorbents is crucial. This study highlights newly developed trends in the creation of graphene oxide based nanocomposites to eliminate different heavy metal ions, dyes, pharmaceuticals, and oils spills from effluent water. The focus is on various graphene oxides nanocomposites application for the removal of different pollutants and regeneration of graphene oxide base nanocomposites after several adsorption cycles. Other challenges and potential directions for designing efficient GO based nanocomposites as adsorbents are also presented along with the problems of current studies.