Sodium alginate-based eco-friendly nanocomposites for textile wastewater management

Increasing global textile production continues to intensify concerns about the discharge of untreated dye-laden wastewater into the environment. Textile effluents are typically dark in color and characterized by high pH, elevated biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, total dissolved solids, and total suspended solids. Moreover, textile dyes exhibit high levels of toxicity, carcinogenicity, genotoxicity, and mutagenicity toward living cells. In this regard, for environmental sustainability, there is a pressing need to improve the quality of effluents before they are discharged into water bodies. Therefore, various treatment techniques are being explored for textile wastewater, and many studies now use nanomaterials because their unique properties and easy customization make them highly effective for this purpose. Sodium alginate (SA) is an abundantly available, eco-friendly, and cost-effective biopolymer that can be effectively utilized as an adsorbent for wastewater treatment. Moreover, modifying SA or incorporating it into composites with other materials can significantly enhance its functional properties, broadening its potential for advanced environmental applications. In this review, we highlight the development and application of SA-based nanocomposites for effective textile wastewater treatment. Lastly, the review provides insights into the current limitations of SA-based materials and offers recommendations for future research directions to enhance their performance and applicability.