Nanocontainer for environmental applications

This chapter focuses on the potential use of nanocontainers for environmental application, namely, for water treatment, gas sensing, and conservation of art. Although nanocontainers have numerous applications, its utility for environmental purposes chiefly tends toward environmental remediation. In the treatment of wastewater, the catalytic and adsorption properties of certain nanocontainers are found to be particularly beneficial for the removal of organic dyes, heavy metal ions, and toxic pollutants as well as to control algal growth in eutrophic water. Some hollow nanostructures have also been investigated for the sensing of gases like CO and H2 and liquids such as H2O, ethanol (EtOH), and acetone. These nanocontainers showed improved gas sensing performance as compared to pure metal oxides or metal composites owing to their high surface area and large amount of inner voids. Reported studies on the use of nanocontainers for art conservation are limited. Nevertheless, a novel class of p-xylene in water microemulsions mainly based on nonionic surfactants and their application as low impact cleaning tool in cultural heritage conservation has been discussed as a sole example of this category.