Background

The use of fertilizers in modern agriculture and the expansion of industrialization are severely raising heavy metals (HMs) contamination in aquatic environments, which leads to severe carcinogenic implications and critical health issues in living organisms. Thus, the continuous monitoring of water quality is of paramount importance in both healthcare aspect and environmental safety. Adsorption-based removal of HMs from wastewater is considered as foremost and highly efficient method for improving the water quality.

Methods

Metal nanoparticles (MNPs) functionalized nanocomposites such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene oxide (GOx), graphene-quantum dots (GQDs), zeolites (ZLs), and metal organic frameworks (MOFs) have received remarkable attention in removal of HMs from wastewater owing to its higher active surface area, enhanced adsorption sites, tunable porosity, and superior stability in complexed wastewater environments.

Significant findings

Firstly, the synthesis and functionalization of MNPs on the surface of CNTs, GOx, GQDs, ZLs, and MOFs are discussed; the functionalization is the key step, which makes them as potential adsorbents. Secondly, the MNPs incorporated CNTs, GOx, GQDs, ZLs, and MOFs nanocomposites-based removal of various HMs from wastewaters are summarized. The MNPs-based nanocomposites are indeed considered robust adsorbents and have shown great potential in human healthcare monitoring and environmental sustainability.