Application Progress of Carbon Nanotube Composites in Heavy Metal Ion Treatment

Wastewater from industrial pollution contains a large number of heavy metal ions, which can contaminate drinking water and food when it flows into rivers or leaches into the soil. Because of their persistent and bio-accumulative nature, these metals can continue to concentrate in soils, transferring to crops and, subsequently, to humans. Carbon nanotube materials have a strong adsorption capacity for heavy metal ions, so they have become a new research site in the field of environmental science. In this paper, the principle of adsorption of heavy metal ions by carbon nanotube materials is discussed, and the research progress in recent years is summarized. In the end, this paper concludes that while CNTs are promising in adsorbing heavy metal, there are still issues to be resolved, like enhancing scalability, cutting production costs, and optimising the adsorbent's effectiveness under a range of water conditions. Future research might focus on improving the composite structure even further to boost stability in various environmental settings, improve adsorption efficiency, and leverage cutting-edge techniques like artificial intelligence and machine learning to support future investigations.