Alginate-based materials as adsorbent for sustainable water treatment

With the encroaching issue of water pollution, the use of involved chemicals to remove pollutants from water is not only a risk of chemical contamination, a potential hazard to the environment and human health but also requires significant investment in managing and improving the chemicals. Therefore, alginate as one of the nanomaterial-adorned polysaccharides-based entity that usually extract from brown algae has been used as novel and more efficient catalysts in the removal of a variety of aqueous pollutants from wastewater, including ionic metals and organic/inorganic pollutants by using the adsorption techniques. Adsorption is a technique used in water treatment where non-polar or particles less soluble in water are stuck to the surface of the adsorbent and therefore purifying it. An example of pollutant typically removed via this method is an organic dye. Alginate-based composites due to their ability to bind to metals like Cd, Au, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, and Zn, are a common low-cost and highly effective adsorbents used to remove heavy metals, industrial paints, pesticides, and antibiotics. This review focusses on augmenting the recent status, challenges, and further prospects in alginate-based materials for their potential role exclusively in wastewater treatment, including their modification as adsorbents and their adsorption behaviors. Various applications of alginate-based adsorbent are showcased and tabulated their role in treatment of diverse range of pollutants. It can be concluded that the role of alginate in wastewater treatment is indispensable in the future with its biodegradability, low cost, stability, and high-water permeability properties. However, some challenges need to be identified and overcome to ensure the application of alginate in wastewater treatment can be widely used throughout the world, especially in Malaysia, a country with an abundance of water.