Conducting polymers and carbon nanotubes in the field of environmental remediation: Sustainable developments

Water quality degradation and the scarcity of pure drinking water are the current global issues. Toxic organic and inorganic contaminants must be removed from the water to maintain a clean environment, overcome the problem of shortage of pure drinking water, and for a balanced ecosystem. Many innovative ideas and techniques have been developed in the last few decades to deal with environmental remediation problems. Adsorption, purification, and separation technologies involving nanomaterials and is regarded as the most effective techniques for treating wastewater due to their effectiveness, adaptability, low cost, simplicity, environmental friendliness, and selectivity for heavy toxic metals and organic dyes. Due to their unique properties and benefits, like easy manufacturing, lower price, good environmental stability, simple acid-base doping/de-doping procedure, and adjustable properties, conducting polymers (CPs) like polyaniline, polythiophene, etc. based nanocomposites (NCs) are receiving increasing academic interest. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are gaining popularity as an efficient and sustainable substitute to traditional adsorbents for water purification due to their superior surface properties, ease of regrowth, large surface area, regulated structural variety, excessive chemical stability, porosity, low density, and reusability. This review paper focuses on the usage of CNTs and CPs (polyaniline, and polythiophene) based NCs for environmental remediation. The main focus is on the synthesis, functionalization, modification, and adsorption behavior of CPs and CNTs-based NCs toward the removal of pollutants (organic dyes, heavy metal ions, and emerging waste) from the environment. The starting from the important historical journey to the latest developments in CNTs and CPs-based NCs for environmental pollutant removal were discussed in detail.