Carbon-based nanocomposites for the elimination of inorganic and organic pollutants through sorption and catalysis strategies

Fast development of global industrial and agriculture results in the production of large amounts of different kinds of toxic organic compounds, radioactive or non-radioactive nuclides, which are inevitably discharged/released into the natural systems. These contaminants are difficult to be eliminated and present in the environment for long time, and can be accumulated in crops or animals easily by the food chain processes, which thereby causes the high concentrations in living organisms and human body in the end. The carbon-based nanomaterials such as covalent organic frameworks (COFs), porous carbon nanomaterials, g-C3N4, have attracted multidisciplinary interests because they have outstanding properties, i.e., high stability, surface functional groups and abundant active sites. In this minor review, the carbon-based nanomaterials used for the sorption of pollutants, photo -catalytic elimination of radioactive nuclides and metal ions by sorption-reduction, organic contaminants by sorption-reduction, electro-catalytic removal of pollutants by sorption-reduction and heavy metal ions/radio-nuclides by sorption-extraction are reviewed and compared. The interactions and possible mechanism are dis-cussed based on advanced spectroscopic analysis and computational calculations. In the end, the challenges in future, especially in real applications, are described. This review highlights the research works for carbon-based nanomaterials and their applications as adsorbents and catalysts in environmental pollution management.