Applications of metallic nanomaterials for the treatment of water

Water scarcity is not a novel issue. It has already affected almost every continent in this blue planet. It is driven by two primary sources: increasing demand for fresh water due to the increase in population and overexhaustion of the available freshwater resources. During the past decade, stress has been given to extract fresh, clean and safe potable elixir of life from the bountiful stores of sea water by exploiting various technologies. As nanomaterials are providing promising solutions to almost all our problems, they are again being accessed in order to combat the problem of global freshwater scarcity. Desalination methods have marvellously improved under the impact of nanomaterials. Different metallic nanomaterials are being used to serve this purpose; for example, silver, iron, zinc, titanium dioxide in addition to natural and synthetically derived polymeric bionanomaterials. In the present paper, a brief account of all the metallic nanomaterials which are being used for treatment of water has been provided by thorough investigation on the research done till now. It strives to throw light on various materials and methods which are based on the exploitation of nanotechnology for the treatment of water.