OCTOBER 2018
Application of carbon-based nanostructures in water
treatment: A review
Luis Enrique Castañeda
Abstract—In this paper a literature review is presented
on the current status of carbon-based nanostructures in the
area of water filtering. As water starts to become scarce,
the need for solutions is imperative and nanotechnology
can help us to solve the problematic. This paper focuses
on carbon nanotubes, membranes and meshes applied to
water filtering and removal of pollutants. It looks for
their current status, advantages, disadvantages and what
research can be done in the future to not impact only
water treatment but other ecological scopes, as stated in
the conclusions.
Index Terms—Water treatment, Carbon Nanotubes,
Membranes, Nanomaterials.
I. I NTRODUCTION
W ATER is one of the most valuable resources
for every living being. Our demand for
clean and potable water is on the rise, making it
a problem for the countries due to several factors
like (I) climate change, which includes droughts
and rising temperatures, (II) exponential growth
of the population, (III) increase of salts levels in
all water bodies and (IV) the growth of industrial
activity which uses water as part of their processes
[1] [2] [3]. At the same time, the industrialization
is producing more pollutants than ever, most of
which enter into water reservoirs, exacerbating the
problem. These pollutants include conventional
ones, like heavy metals, and some new micro and
nano contaminants such as antibiotics and specific
particles used in industry [4] [5].
Conventional methods for water treatment and
purification, that include the use of chlorine,
ultraviolet light, boiling, Ozonation, reverse
osmosis, etc. [1], are proving not being able to
satisfy the water demand as some of the new
Luis E. Castañeda was with the School of Engineering, Department
of Nanotechnology, Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus Monterrey,
Monterrey, NL, Ave. Eugenio Garza Sada 2501 Sur, México. Col.
Tecnologico, 64849 Mexico e-mail: A01241518@itesm.mx
1
pollutants are small enough to bypass these
methods, and some resistant bacterial and viral
pathogens which can survive the process and
reach the final consumer. Therefore, relatively new
methods are being researched and developed to
increase the efficiency of water treatment with
the help of nanotechnology and nanomaterials,
emphasizing carbon-based nanostructures, as
Carbon nanotubes (CNT’s), membranes and
meshes [5]. These methods have been proved
efficient and low energy consuming, but were
relatively expensive. Thanks to the increase of
commercial production, the price of CNT’s has
dropped from $ 1500 per gram in 2000 to $ 1.48
per gram in 2017 [6].
By the comparison of the existing methods and
their efficiency in the removal of different pollutants
in water, this paper reviews the best carbon-based
nanostructures for this purpose and establishes un-
explored research fields that may lead to new ways
techniques for water treatment using CNT’s and
membranes.
II. M ATERIALS AND M ETHODS
Three databases were used to search information
regarding the subject, these were Scopus, Google
Scholar and Science Direct. Also, Gartner was used
to observe the hype cycle of the nanostructures.
In figure 1, it can be seen that Water management
section, which includes the field of research in this
paper, the plateau of productivity will be reached
between 2 and 5 years. That is why there are many
research results in this topic. As an example, in table
I, it can be seen the number of articles related to
the topic obtained by one database. As the focus of
this review is to compare the existing methods of
water treatment using CNT’s and membranes, most
of the papers were not taking into consideration
as they describe the methodology to produce the
OCTOBER 2018
mentioned nanostructures. Also, there might be even
more types and variations of carbon-based nanos-
tructures than the mentioned in this review, but as
the scope is limited the focus was in the three types
of nanostructures previously mentioned.
Figure 1. Hype Cycle for Sustainability, 2017 [7]
Table I
G OOGLE SCHOLAR PAPERS 2008-2018 [8]
Search criteria Number of articles
Water treatment nanotechnology 801,000
Carbon nanotubes filter 32,900
Membranes filtration 176,000
III. T HEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. Types of contaminants in drinking water
As the problem states, water pollution is an
issue in the actual world that will aggravate if no
actions are taken. It is obvious that a better water
filtering method is necessary, but first it needs to
be understood what is to be removed from water.
As shown in Table II, there are several pollutants
to be removed from water before being drinkable.
Many of those contaminants may be nano-scale
or dissolved, bypassing regular methods of water
purification, creating the need of new ways of water
treatment.
2
Table II
T YPES OF WATER POLLUTANTS [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
Type of pollutant Pollutant
Heavy metals
Inorganic
Salts
Detergent
Insecticides
Organic Herbicides
Fats
Dyes
Bacteria
Viruses
Biological
Fungi
Algae
B. Carbon-based nanostructures for filtration
1) Carbon Nanotubes: CNT’s were reported in
1991 by Sumio Iijima, consisting in hollow cylin-
drical rolled sheets of graphite, with a diameter be-
tween 1-100 nm. There are two main types, single-
walled (SWNT’s) and multi-walled (MWNT’s) [14]
as shown in Figure 2. CNT’s have many proper-
ties and uses, as a material used to increase the
resistance of an structure, for electrical circuits and
more. But the most important property for this
review is the adsorption capability of the tubes [15].
Adsorption is a process where the pollutant creates
a film on the adsorbent (in this case the CNT’s),
until equilibrium is reached [13]. The amount of
adsorbed pollutant is given by the surface area of the
adsorbent, and CNT’s have a large one. Also, thanks
to the characteristic structure of CNT’s, they have a
strong interaction with organic molecules and have
been used to remove metal ions, such as copper,
nickel, cobalt, cadmium, rare earth elements, etc.
[11].
Figure 2. SWNT and MWNT [16]
OCTOBER 2018 3

To obtain the desired properties of CNT’s,

combinations of different materials with the
nanotubes can be done. For example, graphene
sheets have been combined with CNT’s aerogels to
create an hybrid, which according to its creators,
it has 15.8 times the ability to desalinate brackish
water [17].

Another way to obtain specific characteristics

is to rearrange the CNT’s to create a different
structure, emulating Sponges, which are three-
dimensional arrays of CNT’s interconnected
networks. As the sponges have random nanotubes
overlapping between them, the porous surface
behaves as a labyrinth in which more nanoparticles
can be intercepted and retained, compared to what Figure 3. A CNT’s membrane formed by hexagonally packing 12
a normal, well aligned compound can stop due to nanotubes in a periodic cell [22]
their nature [18].

2) Membranes: Membranes are based in the

natural way the water is filtered; when it rains the
water passes through several layers which include
vegetation, gravel, soil, sand, etc., but it cannot
be directly mimicked as it is time consuming and
usually results in unwanted mechanical properties
in the membrane [19]. The current most used
membranes in water treatment are Polymer and
Ceramic-based, with the first being flexible in
their design and cheap, and the latter having more
thermal, mechanical and chemical stability, making
them able to withstand harsher environments [20].
With the discovery of CNT’s and their unique
characteristics, the development of fabrication tech-
niques made possible to arrange nanotubes in
aligned arrays and within membranes, as shown in
Figure 3. Due to the properties of both CNT’s,
which include excellent thermal and mechanical
stability, and membranes of nanotubes with high
surface area and being cost-effective when fabri-
cated, it is expected for them to compete in the near
future with the previously mentioned ceramic and
polymer membranes [21].
the Lotus, which shows the super-hydrophobic
property. This means that water cannot pass
through it. It is possible to apply that property in
the mesh, along with the super-oleophilic property
(which allows oil to pass through the mesh),
thanks to the modification of material’s topography
at nano-scale. This is where CNT’s come in; in
addition of their previously mentioned properties
and chemical inertness, they make a great candidate
for high temperatures applications, ideal for water-
oil filtration. Combining super-hydrophobic and
super-oleophilic properties with the CNT’s ones,
researchers found that a mesh made from Stainless
Steel (SS) coated with CNT’s is applicable for this
purpose [23]. An example of how a mesh of SS
looks with and without CNT’s is show in Figure 4.

3) Meshes: Another not so extended variation

of the CNT’s arrays are meshes, which are similar
to sponges and membranes, being a kind of hybrid Figure 4. a) Bare SS mesh, b) CNT’s grown on a SS mesh [23]
between them. Meshes base their behavior in
nature, most specifically natural aquatic plants as
OCTOBER 2018
C. Comparison between CNT’s, Membranes and time loss and decrease in the filtration capacity of
Meshes each mesh.
Having seen the basic composition of CNT’s,
Membranes and Meshes (which are CNT’s
derivatives), the advantages and disadvantages of
these carbon-based nanostructures in water filtering
needs to be compared.
CNT’s as mentioned before, have several
advantages like great mechanical, chemical and
physical properties that allows scientists to use
them in different areas, as water filtering. The
adsorption given by the large surface area helps
to eliminate most of the organic pollutants. And
in sponge form, the re-usability is easy as it
only requires a simple squeeze operation to
clean the nanostructure, as a normal sponge. A
disadvantage, as CNT’s are being considered
as individuals, is when introduced in water as
powder form, tend to aggregate themselves as
bundles, reducing adsorption capabilities. Also,
the need to reuse them makes their adsorption
function to be reduced by adding magnets to
recover them from water, wasting space that could
be used to adsorb pollutants, and finally, a possible
future disadvantage if they begin to be used at an
industrial rate is the impact in the environment and
health that might produce due to accumulation of
CNT’s in water bodies [24].
Membranes are nanostructures made of CNT’s,
usually with another materials in the membrane.
Therefore, there are many variations of membranes,
each one with their own pros and cons, but
to cite one of the most common, membranes
has as advantage, apart from all the individual
CNT’s, the possibility of ultrafine pores (¡2 nm),
good permeability and desalination potential. In
disadvantages their fabrication process might
be complicated depending on the configuration
wanted, thus increasing costs and time [25].
Finally, meshes have as advantage their excellent
super-hydrophobic and super-oleophilic properties
that makes them perfect for water-oil filtration, but
an important disadvantage was found, as shown in
Figure 5, in which its observed how after use the
mesh starts to be blocked by water [23]. This can be Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey Campus Mon-
fixed every time the process ends, but may generate terrey for the sponsorship of the scholarship. He
4
Figure 5. Optical microscopy images of a mesh used in a filtration
test. Many openings of the mesh were covered with microscopic size
water droplets after filtration [23]
IV. C ONCLUSION
As presented in the review, since the discovery of
CNT’s there have been significant advances in the
area of water filtering, but it was found that there
are not industrial and commercial applications for
this technology, because of the cost, the existence of
already developed alternatives and the huge number
of combinations possibles, resulting in a challenge
to study all of them and their implications and
uses. As shown in the Figure 1, CNT’s are in the
disillusionment stage of their life, which may be
the reason why there are many articles related to
what could possibly be done but not every one of
them actually shows a significant advance. But as
the time passes we will see how these structures
will start to have real world applications as our
water scarcity problem increases. What was not
found is CNT’s and its derivatives based on organic
matter that might help to reduce the amount of food
waste (fruits and vegetables mainly) and probably
making the nanostructures more biodegradable, at-
tacking one of the possible future disadvantages of
the CNT’s which is the contamination due to the
quantities used. There is still much to do regarding
this topic, and better configurations will be found
in the future to improve the quality of the existent
filtering technologies.
V. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author would like to thank CONACYT and
OCTOBER 2018
also acknowledges the support given by his thesis
advisor Fernando Rodrı́guez and master’s director
Sergio Omar Martı́nez Chapa in the selection of the
research topic.
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