Graphene-based nanomaterial for desalination of water: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Due to its unique properties, graphene has emerged as a promising green nanomaterial for many applications. The porous structure and wetting characteristics of graphene make it an excellent and promising nanomaterial for water desalination (WD) and purification. The present work presents a systematic review and performs a meta-analysis on the application of graphene-based nanomaterial for WD. The reported results encourage expanding the use of different types of graphene-based nanomaterial in WD and thus fill the knowledge gaps in finding a comprehensive, simple, and cost-effective application of nanomaterial in WD. The meta-analysis showed that the cheap and simple graphene-based nanomaterial have an effective salt rejection efficiency (%SAR) in the range 83.04 (79.95-96.13); besides, the %SAR for meta-analysis on various desalination techniques is 99.8% (pervaporation), 55% (adsorption), and 100% (distillation). Nonetheless, the present literature review concluded that more focused research works are required: i) to investigate and evaluate the optimal operating conditions, the impact of environmental hazards, techno-economic analysis of the process and ii) to evaluate the probable nano-toxicity that occurs due to the accidental release of nanomaterials.