Nanobiodegradation of pharmaceutical pollutants

Water contamination by pharmaceutical compounds and active residues has become a worrying issue around the world. The pharmaceutical residues have been widely identified in surface water, groundwater, and sewage effluents ranging from ppm to ppb levels. Parent pharmaceuticals as well as intermediates or metabolites in the environment are regarded as contaminants of high concern, resulting in a number of adverse consequences, such as gene toxicity, hormonal interference, antibiotic resistance, and sex organ imposition. Among various physicochemical removal methods, the deployment of nanostructured materials has emerged as a novel approach for efficient mitigation of pharmaceutical contaminants from the aqueous media. Nanomaterials possess a substantial surface area, low cost, ecofriendliness, and high affinity for an array of inorganic and organic molecules. In this chapter, we spotlight various pharmaceutical removal methods such as biological treatment, constructed wetlands, nanofiltration, and advanced oxidation methods, including photocatalysis, Fenton and photo-Fenton methods, agricultural byproducts and biosorbents, resins and metal oxide-based adsorbents and nanostructured materials for the abatement of pharmaceutical contamination in the environmental niches. Nanobased remediation approaches might represent a high potential for the removal of an array of environmental contaminants in water.