Chitosan-based nanomaterials for pharmaceutical waste remediation

Due to the exponential rise of anthropogenic practices and modernization, pharmaceutical waste has emerged as a global problem. Pharmaceutical residues have a complex nature and strong potential to damage humans, animals, and other parts of the ecosystem. As pharmaceutical waste contains a high concentration of microbial toxicity, organic matter and high salt concentrations are difficult to degrade. Traditional methods like physical (filtering and sedimentation) and chemical (chemical precipitation, chemical oxidation, coagulation, and flocculation) do not work because pharmaceutical waste has resistant compounds, toxic byproducts, and contaminants that are hard to remove. Among the numerous recent approaches, adsorption of contaminants by using chitosan nanomaterials appeared to be a simple and powerful way for the eradication of pharmaceutical waste. These chitosan-based nanomaterials strongly bind with toxic materials and can efficiently remove them from waste water with fewer toxic intermediates. Chitosan nanomaterials have many unique properties, including biocompatibility, biodegradability, durability, low toxicity, and a high surface-to-volume ratio. Due to these properties, chitosan nanomaterials are superior to other technologies. Even though there are still some problems and limitations with using chitosan materials to treat wastewater, such as the fact that they can only remove certain compounds, work only at certain pH levels, and are badly affected by other environmental factors. Currently, ongoing research activities are struggling to eradicate all obstacles that are present in the wide-spread application of chitosan nanomaterials.