Application of nanotechnology in drinking water purification

Water quality impacts directly on the health and sanitation of human societies. Toxic contaminants depletion, such as heavy metals and persistent organics from industrial and agricultural activities in water supplies has reduced the availability of clean and usable water for drinking and food industries. The conventional treatment processes are not able to remove the mentioned pollutants and cause to form toxic disinfection by-products. Nanotechnology possesses great promise to enhance performance of existing treatment processes and develop new processes. Nowadays, nanotechnology finds its practical applications in different areas of water and wastewater treatment. In this chapter, some nanotechnology-enabled water-treatment processes utilizing silver nanoparticles, zero-valent iron nanoparticles, nanostructured photocatalysts, membranes-based nanotechnology, and nanoadsorbents are investigated. In the case of each technology, it has been tried to survey the necessity and efficacy with considering the important challenges.