2. Current and potential applications for
water and wastewater treatment
Nanomaterials are typically defined as materials smaller than
100 nm in at least one dimension. At this scale, materials often
possess novel size-dependent properties different from their
large counterparts, many of which have been explored for applications
in water and wastewater treatment. Some of these
applications utilize the smoothly scalable size-dependent
properties of nanomaterials which relate to the high specific
surface area, such as fast dissolution, high reactivity, and
strong sorption. Others take advantage of their discontinuous
properties, such as superparamagnetism, localized surface
plasmon resonance, and quantum confinement effect. These
applications are discussed below based on nanomaterial
functions in unit operation processes (Table 1). Most applications
discussed below are still in the stage of laboratory
research. The pilot-tested or field-tested exceptions will be
noted in the text.