Kallappa Ramchandra Sanadi
Doodhsakhar Mahavidyalaya, Department of Chemistry, Bidri, Tal‐Kagal, Kolhapur, 416208, India
Nowadays, nanoscience and nanotechnology attract attention of worldwide researchers toward it, due to its shape and size‐dependent vast applications. It is an interdisciplinary research area which covers Materials science, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Mathematics, and Engineering subjects, etc. This field investigates the relationship between the structure of materials at atomic or molecular scales and their macroscopic properties. In recent years, with significant media, attention is focused on nanoscience and nanotechnology. Nanoparticles exhibit different behavior from bulk material because of a significant number of atoms located at the surface [1–4]. If we search nanoscience and nanotechnology on any search engine, it shows near about 2 million hits. It is the first technology which has covered trillion dollar market worldwide. It covers all aspects of everyday life like medicine, sporting goods, stain resistant, clothing, tires, electronics, cosmetics, and security.
Currently, considerable interest in nanocrystalline materials exists owing to their unusual properties. Nanomaterials possess remarkable phenomena such as:
The development of nanocrystalline materials is a subject of considerable interest, both for the scientific value of understanding the unique properties of materials that have relevance to condensed matter studies and for the technological significance of enhancing the performance of existing materials [5–8].
Nanotechnology gives the knowledge regarding control of matter on the atomic or molecular scale. The term nanos comes from Greek, i.e., dwarf, and it is used to describing prefix 10−9 (one billionth of meter) measuring unit. Nanotechnology is simply defined as designing, synthesis, characterization, and application of materials by controlling size and shape in nanoscale [9] or simply it is also defined as understanding and control of matter in between 1 and 100 nm scale dimension. The material whose size is in between 1 and 100 nm is called as nanomaterials, 1 nm = 10 Å = 10−9 m.
The concept of nanotechnology was first invented by Richard Feynman in 1959 during his presentation at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society, California. He said “There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom.” He intentionally explained matter on atomic level. After his motivational lecture so many researchers were devoted their attention to study and prepare material in nanoscale. Finally, their effort becomes true since last three decades and they mention two approaches for the preparation of nanomaterials, they were “bottom‐up” and “top‐down.”
Top‐down technique involves preparation of nanomaterials from large piece of material into very small structures, for example, ball milling, etchings through the mask, etc.
This approach involves preparation of larger structure by combining atoms or molecules using covalent force, for example, synthesis of polymer, growth of quantum dot, etc.
Hundreds of nanomaterials were synthesized in last three decades, so to identify the class of nanomaterials classifications were carried out depending upon their properties. In 1995, the classification idea was first given by Gleiter [10] and after then this idea was improved by Skorokhod in 2000 [11]. But both these ideas were not covered all class of nanomaterials into account. Hence in 2006, Pokropivny and Skorokhod modified this classification method. They carried classification of nanomaterials based on their dimensions, which are zero‐dimensional (0‐D), one‐dimensional (1‐D), two‐dimensional (2‐D), and three‐dimensional (3‐D) [12].
All three dimensions of the materials are in nanometer range and their dimensions are less than 100 nm. They can be exhibited in amorphous, crystalline, polycrystalline, individually exist, or incorporated in matrix form. Example of this class includes nanoparticles, nanoclusters, and nanocrystals.
In this class, one dimension is outside the nanoscale. They have changeable length in nanoregime. They show needle‐like shape. 1‐D materials include nanorods, nanotubes, and nanowires.
Bulk nanomaterials which are not confined to the nanoscale in any dimension are known as 3‐D nanomaterials. They can be composed of manifold arrangements of nanosize crystals having dissimilar arrangement. They include dispersion nanoparticle, bulk powders, nanotubes, and nanowires. Due to strong dependent on size, shape, and morphology, they are important material and widely used in the area of magnetic material, catalyst, and electrode material [13].
Basically they are nanomaterials in which two dimensions are outsides of the nanoscale range. They show plate‐like shapes and comprise of nanolayers, nanofilms, nanocoatings, and grapheme. They can be of amorphous, crystalline, made up of various chemical compositions, and deposited on substrate.
Recently, synthesis of 2D nanomaterials has become an interesting area in material research due to some low dimensional characteristics differs from the bulk properties. These materials open novel cutting edge in material science owing to their excellent optical, high conductivity, electronic and mechanical properties which initiate from their ultrathin thickness and morphological features [14, 15].
Now many researchers are working to obtain 2D materials in pure form. But studies of doping in 2D materials attracted much more attention of the researcher because of achieving novel properties of the materials by doping like achieving high sensitivity and high power harvest efficiency, semiconductor, and spin behavior [16]. Due to wafer‐scale growth, many materials have wide range of applications in variety of fields like solar cells, sensors, catalyst, biomedical applications, transistors, and super capacitors. With these improved applications of materials comes to need for preparation, characterization and investigating their potential applications. The classification of nanomaterials depending on their dimensions is shown in (Figure 16.1).
The best example of modern 2D material is graphene. In 1947, P.R. Wallace first given idea of single layer graphene theoretically, but it was clearly prepared and recognized by the group of Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov in 2004 [18]. After then number of researcher focused on and hundreds of other 2D nanomaterials were identified. 2D materials generally grouped in the form of 2D allotropes of various elements or compounds.
Graphene is a thin carbon layered material with honeycomb like structure. From last decade, graphene is the most studied material due to their extraordinary properties like high thermal conductivity, high mechanical strength, high optical activity, high charge carrier mobility, and large surface area [19–21]. Due to these properties, graphene made itself serious alternative option to substitute numerous predictable materials for variety applications.
2D nanomaterials were synthesized by different methods (Figure 16.2). Some of them are explained briefly as below.
The prepared nanomaterials are characterized by different techniques; some of them are as given below
Nanomaterials have small particle size and higher catalytic activity; it has wide applications in different fields like
Water is one of the most essential things for all living organism for survival. World is surrounded by 70% of water, out of these only 3–4% is fresh water available on all over the earth in the form of river, ponds, and streams, and remaining is the saline water. This fresh water is polluted by direct discharge of wastewater from different industry and some area human activity also. This wastewater contains different heavy metal ions as well as organic pollutants like dyes and phenols which are most hazardous and highly toxic to the human and environment. So removal of these hazardous materials from wastewater is becoming a serious case [28].
Recently, the organic and biological pollutants from water can be removed by applying chlorination and ozonization process. These active oxidizing agents quickly react with different natural organic compounds in water and produced different carcinogenic by‐products. With this, due to development of resistance power of some organisms toward chlorine they require higher doses than normal for complete inactivation. Physical disinfection and ultraviolet (UV) irradiation technique is also used for water treatment technology. But unluckily UV irradiation technique is also unacceptable for definite kinds of microbes. Therefore, it is essential to develop sustainable water disinfections technique to remove pathogens from water [29].
The scientific and engineering interest in the application of semiconductor photocatalysis has grown exponentially in the last 10 years. Semiconductor photocatalysts have attracted much attention in the past decade because of their potential applications in the removal of all kinds of pollutants in air or water. Most of the investigations have focused on mixed‐metal oxides which show relatively high reactivity and chemical stability under UV light. The photocatalytic degradation of organic molecules is of great importance in water treatment. In most cases, dyes are studied as model compounds for large organic molecules [30].
The heterogeneous photocatalysis is a useful option in the highly developed researches for both disinfection and decontamination of water. It has high photochemical stability and utilizes solar light for irradiation of water treatment effectively. The good photocatalysts must have good crystallinity, non‐toxicity, easiness in handling, inexpensive applicability, cheapness, high surface area, etc., and should not produce toxic by‐products [31].
Nowadays, 2D nanomaterials due to their unique electronic, optical, biosensing, and physicochemical properties attracted attention of researchers and used as an excellent photocatalyst for degradation of variety of dyes. Currently, nanomaterials of graphene and their derivatives are widely used as heterogeneous photocatalyst in different areas, particularly for water purification and disinfections due to their large surface area, high charge carrier mobility, high mechanical stiffness, and its biocompatible nature.
The basic principle of photocatalysis process is a semiconductor photo excitation as a result of radiation absorption, normally near UV spectrum. Under near UV irradiation, a suitable semiconductor material may be excited by photons possessing energies of sufficient magnitude to produce conduction band electrons and valence band holes which are shown in Figure 16.3. These charge carriers are able to induce reduction or oxidation, respectively, and react with both water and organic compounds. The holes are extremely oxidants and should thus be able to oxidize almost all chemicals, as well as water, resulting in the formation of hydroxyl radicals [33–35]. Meanwhile, holes react with donors (H2O, OH−) to produce oxidant species. Oxidant species produced from electrons and holes have strong oxidizing abilities and can directly oxidize organic compounds into CO2 and H2O [36, 37].
Recently, Yue Liu et al. [38] studied the photocatalytic activity of 2D nanomaterials toward water disinfection and their progress and future challenges. In this review article, they ordered 2D nanomaterials as structural brick for photocatalytic water disinfections. They mentioned five groups of 2D nanomaterials such as graphene, 2D metal oxides and metallates, graphitic carbon nitride, transition metal dichalcogenides, and metal oxyhalides for photocatalytic pathogens inactivation. Pardeep Singh et al. [39] had mentioned different plans for improvement of photocatalytic activity of graphene‐based nanocomposites for water purification. In this review article, they summarized several works finished on the usage of graphene‐based photocatalytic system in water purifications. Priyanka Ganguly et al. [40] carried out study on 2D nanomaterials for photocatalytic hydrogen production. In this article, they explained current progress made in photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction by 2D nanomaterials and composite heterostructures. They also mentioned fresh perception on the scenario and challenges obtained behind the applications and synthetic strategies. Mohammad Tahir et al. [41] studied tubular graphite–C3N4 materials for energy storage and green photocatalyst. They synthesize graphitic carbon nitride (g‐C3N4) by chemical method and it is used as an electrode material for super capacitors in KOH electrolyte first time. The obtained results are higher than that of earlier reported. They also used g‐C3N4 as a good photocatalyst for degradation of methyl orange (MO) and methyl blue (MB) dye. Jing Sun et al. [42] fabricated 0D–2D BiVO4 nanoparticles/reduced graphene oxide, 1D–2D BiVO4 nanotubes/reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites, and 2D–2D BiVO4 nanosheets/reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites heterojunction photocatalyst by solvothermal process. Their reading promotes new progress in dimensionally factors on manipulating the heterojunction photocatalyst for photodegradation and photocatalytic applications in environmental issue. Xiu Wang et al. [43] were synthesized ternary hybrid structured material of Fe0 doped GCN/MoS2 layered structure network by facile method. The prepared materials were used for photocatalytic degradation of RhB dye and for reduction of Cr(VI). With this, there are also so many other review and research articles which were focused on photocatalytic degradation and disinfection of water by 2D nanomaterials.
Nowadays, 2D nanomaterial becomes increasing demands due to its wide applications in different fields. But it also raised some matter regarding its probable toxicity. Due to very small particle size, TiO2 nanoparticles cause lung inflammation [44]. Singh et al. [45] reported the risk of DNA injury resulting in afterword cancer growth. While variety modes of photocatalyst cause cell death have been proposed depending on impact of reacting species and the method of cell apoptosis, the accurate mechanism is immobile under further research [38]. Some of the researchers mentioned 2D‐based nanomaterials for antibacterial photocatalysis which focused on enhanced charge partition and reactive species production. In this study, main issue is how 2D materials interact with pathogenic cells; persuasive confirmation and clarification are still lacking [38].
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