Carbonaceous nanomaterials for the removal of hazardous pharmaceutical contaminants from wastewater: mechanisms, recent advances, and future directions
- 1Department of Chemistry, Shivaji College, University of Delhi Delhi 110027 India [email protected].
- 2Department of Chemistry, Hansraj College, University of Delhi Delhi 110007 India.
Abstract
Rising pharmaceutical consumption and the continuous discharge of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) into aquatic systems have become defining environmental challenges of the present decade. Because conventional wastewater treatment plants were never designed to remove biologically persistent micropollutants, trace residues accumulate in surface water, groundwater and drinking water, where they drive ecotoxicity, endocrine disruption and the dissemination of antibiotic-resistance genes. Therefore, understanding how nanomaterials can not only capture but also destroy these contaminants is central to safeguarding water quality. This review critically examines carbonaceous nanomaterials, such as graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, carbon nanotubes, graphitic carbon nitride, carbon dots and biochar, for PhAC removal, organised around the four dominant treatment routes: adsorption, membrane filtration, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) and photocatalysis, the latter treated here as a light-driven hazard-oriented framework that achieves true mineralisation rather than the mere transfer of contaminants to another phase. The best-performing systems for the removal of representative drug classes, such as antibiotics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, antidepressants, β-blockers and analgesics, are shown to share a common design motif: a conductive, defect-rich and often heteroatom-doped carbon scaffold that concentrates the pollutant, shuttles photogenerated charge carriers and stabilises a redox or light-active phase. Adsorption and membrane filtration routes deliver high capacity but relocate contaminants to a solid or concentrated phase, while carbon-coupled AOPs and S-/Z-scheme heterojunctions achieve contaminant degradation with concurrent antibiotic-resistance-gene reduction. Beyond removal efficiency, this review highlights catalyst stability, regeneration, reusability, total organic carbon (TOC) removal, transformation-product toxicity, energy demand, and performance in real wastewater matrices as critical parameters governing practical applicability. Finally, this review identifies key research gaps and emphasises the need for standardised, hazard-oriented assessment frameworks that integrate degradation efficiency, mineralisation, transformation-product toxicity, and environmental sustainability. Such an approach is essential for advancing carbonaceous nanomaterials from promising laboratory-scale technologies toward reliable and environmentally safe strategies for pharmaceutical-contaminated water remediation.
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BibTeX
@article{ray2026carbonaceous,
title = {{Carbonaceous nanomaterials for the removal of hazardous pharmaceutical contaminants from wastewater: mechanisms, recent advances, and future directions}},
author = {Khushi Ray and Pratibha Tiwari and Rohit Shah and Priyanshu Singh and Seema Lal},
journal = {RSC advances},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1039/d6ra06812j},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13725870},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Carbonaceous nanomaterials for the removal of hazardous pharmaceutical contaminants from wastewater: mechanisms, recent advances, and future directions
AU - Khushi Ray
AU - Pratibha Tiwari
AU - Rohit Shah
AU - Priyanshu Singh
AU - Seema Lal
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/02
JO - RSC advances
DO - 10.1039/d6ra06812j
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13725870
AB - Rising pharmaceutical consumption and the continuous discharge of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) into aquatic systems have become defining environmental challenges of the present decade. Because conventional wastewater treatment plants were never designed to remove biologically persistent micropollutants, trace residues accumulate in surface water, groundwater and drinking water, where they drive ecotoxicity, endocrine disruption and the dissemination of antibiotic-resistance genes. Therefore, understanding how nanomaterials can not only capture but also destroy these contaminants is central to safeguarding water quality. This review critically examines carbonaceous nanomaterials, such as graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, carbon nanotubes, graphitic carbon nitride, carbon dots and biochar, for PhAC removal, organised around the four dominant treatment routes: adsorption, membrane filtration, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) and photocatalysis, the latter treated here as a light-driven hazard-oriented framework that achieves true mineralisation rather than the mere transfer of contaminants to another phase. The best-performing systems for the removal of representative drug classes, such as antibiotics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, antidepressants, β-blockers and analgesics, are shown to share a common design motif: a conductive, defect-rich and often heteroatom-doped carbon scaffold that concentrates the pollutant, shuttles photogenerated charge carriers and stabilises a redox or light-active phase. Adsorption and membrane filtration routes deliver high capacity but relocate contaminants to a solid or concentrated phase, while carbon-coupled AOPs and S-/Z-scheme heterojunctions achieve contaminant degradation with concurrent antibiotic-resistance-gene reduction. Beyond removal efficiency, this review highlights catalyst stability, regeneration, reusability, total organic carbon (TOC) removal, transformation-product toxicity, energy demand, and performance in real wastewater matrices as critical parameters governing practical applicability. Finally, this review identifies key research gaps and emphasises the need for standardised, hazard-oriented assessment frameworks that integrate degradation efficiency, mineralisation, transformation-product toxicity, and environmental sustainability. Such an approach is essential for advancing carbonaceous nanomaterials from promising laboratory-scale technologies toward reliable and environmentally safe strategies for pharmaceutical-contaminated water remediation.
SN - 2046-2069
ER -