Abstract
In recent times, water pollution has become an issue of major concern.
Various materials and techniques have been adopted for the purification of water.
Among many, cellulose-based nanomaterials have gained valuable use in water
remediation processes. These cellulose-based materials are highly biocompatible,
abundantly available natural biopolymers and enjoy the advantage of containing many
functional groups. The functional groups attached to cellulose biopolymers ensure their
capability of modification with various nanoparticles like silver (Ag), graphene oxide
(GO), and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles. These can then be easily applied for the
remediation of wastewater by removing pollutants like organic dyes, microbial species,
various drugs and heavy metal ions as well. In this chapter designing of various
cellulose-based nano-materials has been discussed for the extraction of valuable metals
from various wastewater. Mainly static and dynamic absorption processes through
cellulose-based nano-materials have been also explained. Adsorption by various
chemical transformations such as reduction, chelation and electrostatic interaction are
discussed for the extraction of various metals from different wastewater sources.
Lastly, composite systems consisting of cellulose and metal oxide nanoparticles have
been reviewed for the extraction of rare earth metals from the mining industry. Metals
from the recycling of battery and semiconductor devices that mostly constitute noble
metals and rare earth elements are also discussed in this chapter.