Application of green synthesized biomaterials from invasive plants for wastewater treatment: a comprehensive review

Wastewater treatment is considered one of the key components of the environmental management system necessary to reduce the impact of rapid industrialization on the environment. Wastewater contains many recalcitrant, pathogenic, and toxic compounds, including several emerging contaminants, which are impractical to remove during conventional treatment. However, invasive plants pose serious challenges to biodiversity worldwide due to their rapid propagation in native ecosystems. Furthermore, the biomaterial synthesized using invasive alien plant species (IPAS) can be used during wastewater treatment to remove contaminants from the liquid matrix to attain ecological sustainability. Prepared NPs have been reported to possess many medicinal, antibacterial, antifungal, and antioxidant properties. In addition, their catalytic and adsorptive properties in different wastewater treatment processes have been studied. Meanwhile, the sorption study has been conducted on biomaterials prepared from different invasive plant derivatives with further modification. In this study, a comprehensive review was carried out to evaluate the suitability of green-mediated NPs and biosorbents derived from invasive plant sources in catalytic oxidation and/or sorption processes. The mechanism, reaction conditions, and efficacy of the oxidation process were discussed in detail. Moreover, special attention has been paid to assessing the suitability, scalability, and sustainability of NPs preparation and pollutant treatment.