Emerging Nanomaterials for Advanced Water Decontamination: Opportunities and Challenges

Global water scarcity is increasingly intensified by persistent micropollutants such as pharmaceuticals, endocrine-disrupting compounds, personal care products, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and heavy metals. Due to their chemical stability and very low concentrations, these contaminants are not efficiently removed by conventional treatment systems. Emerging nanomaterials provide advanced solutions because of their large surface area, tunable surface chemistry, and strong catalytic and adsorption performance. This review summarizes recent progress in nanomaterial-based water purification technologies, including graphene derivatives, metal-organic frameworks, quantum dots, fullerenes, and biochar composites. Major removal pathways such as adsorption, photocatalytic degradation, membrane filtration, and antimicrobial activity are discussed to demonstrate their effectiveness across multiple pollutant classes. Comparative evaluation of parameters such as adsorption capacity, degradation efficiency, and membrane flux highlights the superior performance of nanomaterial-enabled systems over traditional methods. However, practical deployment remains constrained by challenges related to cost, scalability, material recovery, durability, and potential environmental risks. Approaches including green synthesis, life cycle assessment, and artificial-intelligence-assisted material design are suggested to improve sustainability and accelerate translation to real-world applications. Thus, this review highlights both the promise and limitations of nanotechnology-driven water treatment and outlines future research directions toward safe, efficient, and scalable purification strategies while also highlighting few challenges related to scalability, cost, and regeneration that must be addressed for real-world implementation.