Rapid urbanization has a significant impact on various components of the
environment, putting stress on energy reservoirs. These effects targeting human health
risks, in particular, include air pollutants, wastewater load, poor sanitation, etc.
Unsustainable urbanization has also led to a surge in energy requirements for domestic,
industrial, road, and transport use. To address such issues, different methodologies
have been employed to treat different wastewater types, remove gaseous pollutants, and
develop technological interventions that lead to energy harvesting. In recent years,
among several approaches, Carbon-Based Nanocomposites (CBNs) have been
recognized by the scientific community in several fields, including energy and the
environment, because of their increased “surface area to volume ratio”, good chemical
stability, higher conductivity, reduced toxicity, high dispersibility, excellent thermal,
mechanical, and electrical properties, cost-effectivity, facile synthesis, the scope of
surface functionalization, biocompatibility, etc.
This chapter draws attention to the application of various Carbon-Based Nanomaterials
(CBNs) (such as polymer nanocomposites, graphene, Graphene Oxide (GO), reduced
GO (rGO), graphite, activated carbon, etc.) (i) for the detection of heavy metals,
pesticides, bacteria, etc., in contaminated water and their efficient removal, (ii) for the
degradation and removal of organic species from wastewater, (iii) as environmental
sensors for detecting toxic gases, and (iv) as mechanical sensors and energy-harvesting
devices. Further, the latest developments, current challenges, and future scope of
research in CBNs for enhanced environmental and energy-harvesting applications have
also been discussed.
Keywords: Carbon-based nanocomposites, Environment, Energy conversion, Energy storage, Wastewater.
