3.1 Introduction
Amongst the abundant natural resources on earth, water is found to be affecting all
section of human life and it is found that about 1% of water is used in human
consumption (Grey et al. 2013; Adeleye et al. 2016). However, contamination of
fresh water is rapidly growing due to use of various organic/inorganic pollutants
(Schwarzenbach et al. 2006; Ferroudj et al. 2013). It is mentioned in reports that
around 1.1 billion people do not get clean water all over the world which is
continuously decreases with increase in population and contamination of fresh
water by variety of organic/inorganic pollutants (Adeleye et al. 2016; Leonard
et al. 2003; Ashbolt 2004; Hutton et al. 2007; Wigginton et al. 2012; Ritter et al.
2002; Fawell and Nieuwenhuijsen 2003; Rodriguez-Mozaz et al. 2004; Falconer and
Humpage 2005; Wang et al. 2009a, b). The inorganic/organic pollutants come from
different industries mainly paper, textiles, leather cosmetics, printing, dye and metal
processing industries. Contamination of these pollutants potentially affects the
access to get clean water because removal of these contaminants is very difficult
as these are highly stable and affect the aquatic life (Liu et al. 2012; Tian et al. 2013;
Jia et al. 2013; Pereira and Alves 2012; Gajda 1996; Ivanov 1996; Kabdaşli et al.
1996; Bensalah et al. 2009; Wróbel et al. 2001; Dawood et al. 2014; Wong et al.
2004; Hoffmann et al. 1995; Robles et al. 2013; Clarke and Anliker 1980). Dangerous results have already seen due to these contaminations of pollutant in water
although the exact amount of pollutants is not known (Robles et al. 2013; Clarke and
Anliker 1980; Mishra and Tripathy 1993; Banat 1996; Gupta et al. 1990; Malaviya
and Singh 2011; Bhatnagar and Sillanpää 2009). Production of high-quality drinking
water has been developed by the different water industries which still needed
improvement due to emergence of other contaminants like pharmaceutical products,
viruses etc.
Development of an appropriate material to be used for the purification of water is
achieved when the material posses high separation capacity, cheap, porosity, and
recyclability (Zelmanov and Semiat 2008; Anjum et al. 2016). Water treatment has
already been applied biologically but these are slow and limited process which
sometime causes toxicity to microorganism due to toxic agents (Daraei et al.
2013). Remediation of water has been adapted by different methods including
adsorption, coagulation, oxidative-reductive degradation and membrane separation
and so on which are used to remove the various pollutants (Dutta et al. 2001;
Moghaddam et al. 2010; Gao et al. 2012; Wang et al. 2006a, b). Adsorption
among them is most widely used method in water treatment process. Variety of
different adsorbents and their hybrids are used for the decontamination of water and
these material surfaces have high adsorption capacity (Wang et al. 2006a, b; Gandhi
et al. 2016; Upadhyay et al. 2014; Perreault et al. 2015). A big achievement has been
made in water treatment process by enhancing the properties of the catalyst, electrocatalyst, photo electro-catalyst, and disinfection and desalination agent (Chatterjee
and Dasgupta 2005; Moo et al. 2014; Wang et al. 2013a, b; Mahata et al. 2007;
Chang and Wu 2013; Daer et al. 2015).
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M. Tauqeer et al.
Amongst the abundant natural resources on earth, water is found to be affecting all
section of human life and it is found that about 1% of water is used in human
consumption (Grey et al. 2013; Adeleye et al. 2016). However, contamination of
fresh water is rapidly growing due to use of various organic/inorganic pollutants
(Schwarzenbach et al. 2006; Ferroudj et al. 2013). It is mentioned in reports that
around 1.1 billion people do not get clean water all over the world which is
continuously decreases with increase in population and contamination of fresh
water by variety of organic/inorganic pollutants (Adeleye et al. 2016; Leonard
et al. 2003; Ashbolt 2004; Hutton et al. 2007; Wigginton et al. 2012; Ritter et al.
2002; Fawell and Nieuwenhuijsen 2003; Rodriguez-Mozaz et al. 2004; Falconer and
Humpage 2005; Wang et al. 2009a, b). The inorganic/organic pollutants come from
different industries mainly paper, textiles, leather cosmetics, printing, dye and metal
processing industries. Contamination of these pollutants potentially affects the
access to get clean water because removal of these contaminants is very difficult
as these are highly stable and affect the aquatic life (Liu et al. 2012; Tian et al. 2013;
Jia et al. 2013; Pereira and Alves 2012; Gajda 1996; Ivanov 1996; Kabdaşli et al.
1996; Bensalah et al. 2009; Wróbel et al. 2001; Dawood et al. 2014; Wong et al.
2004; Hoffmann et al. 1995; Robles et al. 2013; Clarke and Anliker 1980). Dangerous results have already seen due to these contaminations of pollutant in water
although the exact amount of pollutants is not known (Robles et al. 2013; Clarke and
Anliker 1980; Mishra and Tripathy 1993; Banat 1996; Gupta et al. 1990; Malaviya
and Singh 2011; Bhatnagar and Sillanpää 2009). Production of high-quality drinking
water has been developed by the different water industries which still needed
improvement due to emergence of other contaminants like pharmaceutical products,
viruses etc.
Development of an appropriate material to be used for the purification of water is
achieved when the material posses high separation capacity, cheap, porosity, and
recyclability (Zelmanov and Semiat 2008; Anjum et al. 2016). Water treatment has
already been applied biologically but these are slow and limited process which
sometime causes toxicity to microorganism due to toxic agents (Daraei et al.
2013). Remediation of water has been adapted by different methods including
adsorption, coagulation, oxidative-reductive degradation and membrane separation
and so on which are used to remove the various pollutants (Dutta et al. 2001;
Moghaddam et al. 2010; Gao et al. 2012; Wang et al. 2006a, b). Adsorption
among them is most widely used method in water treatment process. Variety of
different adsorbents and their hybrids are used for the decontamination of water and
these material surfaces have high adsorption capacity (Wang et al. 2006a, b; Gandhi
et al. 2016; Upadhyay et al. 2014; Perreault et al. 2015). A big achievement has been
made in water treatment process by enhancing the properties of the catalyst, electrocatalyst, photo electro-catalyst, and disinfection and desalination agent (Chatterjee
and Dasgupta 2005; Moo et al. 2014; Wang et al. 2013a, b; Mahata et al. 2007;
Chang and Wu 2013; Daer et al. 2015).
64
M. Tauqeer et al.