Study on Magnetic Materials for Removal of Water Pollutants

Water is a primary element for all living things, and we need water for each and every day-to-day activity related to agricultural, industrial, and domestic cares and, thus, its quality influences all aspects of human life including energy, food, health, and economy. Safe drinking water is our primary need to protect our life and thus developing efficient and affordable techniques for water treatment to access potable water to the humanity. Water pollution is one of the severe environmental and health problems worldwide. Pollutants in water can be of organic, inorganic, heavy metals, microbial, and radioactive species, which may be in different forms viz. suspended, dissolved, or dispersed materials. The water quality is mainly affected by industrial discharges, agricultural activities, mismanagement of hazardous materials, etc. Nowadays, nanotechnology offers the possibility of an efficient removal of water pollutants including metals, organic dyes, bacteria, parasites, etc. Magnetic nanomaterials like iron oxide (Fe3O4) are very promising materials used in water decontamination particularly for heavy metals and dyestuffs because of their ease of separation through external magnet, high surface area, unique morphology as well as their high stability. These materials can be used as adsorbent, photocatalyst, and coagulating agents for water remediation based on their composite materials or surface functionalities.