Nanotechnologies for Removal of Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drug from Wastewater

Abstract

Nowadays, our world faces one of the greatest challenges in terms of water consumption due to its growing population and demanding economic development. Water pollution is taking place at a rate and grade that make the advancement in water treatment technologies a research priority on several fronts, including those needed from the environmental and health standpoints. Today, one of the major concerns for allowing water reuse and providing safe drinking water supply is related to the presence of natural organic matter (NOM) and micropollutants in raw water. Among the latter, pharmaceutical compounds (PhCs) stand out, as they could partially or totally resist conventional removal treatments. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are especially ubiquitous PhCs due to their extensive prescription, and, consequently, they are often detected in hospital effluents, surface water bodies, sewage treatment plants (STP) effluents, and soil matrices. Therefore, NSAIDs wastewater removal is becoming a major concern in environmental protection. New technologies capable of efficiently removing them have been developed in the last few decades, and, within them, nanotechnology has risen as a promising tool to aid these technologies to accomplish their goal. In this chapter, the most common approaches to treat NSAIDs-containing wastewater are addressed, including adsorption, photocatalysis, and electrocatalysis; besides, recent advances on nanotechnological applications to improve their performance are covered.