Carbon-based Nanomaterials for Electrochemical- Disinfection Applications

Carbon-based materials have shown captivated applications in water-purification technology, and one of them includes disinfection. The microbial safety of water has remained a challenging task despite being equipped with many technologies. Traditional disinfection methods, including chlorination, ozonation, and ultraviolet radiation, suffer limitations in terms of high chemical dosage and cost. The viability of these processes gets hindered when the generation of disinfection-by-products comes into play, which exhibits carcinogenic activity. Electrochemical disinfection is an excellent technology for its non-hostile operation, low cost, and residual effect. However, it still suffers from low oxygen overvoltage, charge reversibility, and lower current efficiencies. The mediation of nanomaterials enhances its capability due to their large surface area. Carbon-based nanomaterials, due to their nanometer size, possess excellent surface properties along with high conductivity, which makes them a versatile agent for electrochemical disinfection-based applications. The nanomaterials, including graphene, carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, nano-diamonds, have shown excellent antimicrobial properties over a broad range of microbes. Their action ranges from cutting, penetration to the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Laser-Induced-Graphene (LIG), a recently discovered 3-D nanomaterial, had shown excellent surface properties and conductivity, which, when employed for electrochemical disinfection applications as membrane filters, manifested positive results against bacteria. Its facile one-step approach of preparation by laser scribing on any carbonaceous surface makes it a versatile material for long term disinfection applications. In this work, significant challenges with the conventional disinfection systems are highlighted and how electrochemical disinfection techniques could overcome that with the intervention of carbon-based nanomaterials.