Nanostructure-Based Materials for Sorption and Photoelectrochemical Degradation of Water Pollutants: Water Purification Techniques

Water pollution from persistent organic contaminants and toxic heavy metal ions continues to pose a critical threat to environmental and public health worldwide. Conventional treatment strategies often lack efficiency and sustainability when adsorption or photoelectrochemical (PEC) technologies are applied in isolation. Adsorption effectively concentrates pollutants but does not eliminate them, whereas PEC offers strong oxidative and reductive pathways for pollutant degradation, yet suffers from limited surface interaction with target species. This chapter discusses polymer-functionalized carbon-based nanocomposites as promising materials for adsorption, and nanostructures of metal oxides for photodegradation of pollutants. The chapter will present some examples of multifunctional platforms capable of coupling PEC processes to achieve enhanced water purification. An example of the adsorption mechanisms will be discussed with highlights on the Langmuir and the Freundlich isotherm models.