NANOSCIENCE AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL APPLICATIONS

Nanoscience, nowadays, plays a key and prominent role in environmental applications providing novel, green and robust nanomaterials used as photocatalyst, porous adsorbent for the elimination and the detection at lower concentration of environmental pollutants. In this era of industrialization, environmental pollution is one of the major problems of the entire globe. One of the most important issues worldwide is the accessibility to sufficient clean and fresh water for human consumption, and in this context, environmental protection and a new approach in environmental remediation are important factors for a real improvement in quality of life and for sustainable development. Today, the greatest problems are caused by the persistent organic pollutants and emerging pollutants since the traditional methods and technologies are not effective towards these types of pollutants. Photocatalysis using semiconductor is one of the “green” and effective strategies for solving environmental pollution problems; in addition, plasmonic nanoparticles can be used as colorimetric sensors for the detection of inorganic pollutants as heavy metal ions in water.