Recent advances in nanotechnology for remediation of heavy metals

Heavy metal contamination of the environment has become an alarming environmental issue that has constituted serious threats to humans and the ecosystem. These metals have been identified as a priority class of pollutants due to their persistency in the environment and their potential to bioaccumulate in biological systems. Consequently, the remediation of heavy metals from various environmental matrices becomes a critical topic from the biological and environmental perspectives. To this end, various research interests have shifted to the need to put forward economically feasible and highly efficient approaches for mitigating these contaminants in the environment. Thus, numerous conventional approaches have reportedly been employed for the remediation of heavy metals, with each of the methods having its inherent limitations. More recently, studies have revealed that nanomaterials in their various forms show unique potential for the removal of various contaminants including heavy metals in comparison to their bulk counterparts making them a topic of importance to researchers in various fields. Also, various studies have documented specifically tailored nanomaterials that have been synthesized for the removal of heavy metals from various environmental matrices. This review provides up-to-date information on the application of nanotechnology for the remediation of heavy metals. It highlights various nanomaterials that have been employed for the remediation of heavy metals, current details on their methods of synthesis, factors affecting their adsorption processes, and the environmental and health impact of nanomaterials. Finally, it provides the challenges and future trends of nanomaterials for heavy metal removal.