A review on adsorption of heavy metals from wastewater using conducting polymer-based materials

Heavy metals, minerals, and dyes create water pollution that has become a major environmental concern worldwide. Various methods such as advanced oxidation, adsorption, biodegradation, precipitation, flocculation, ultrafiltration, ion exchange, electrochemical degradation, and coagulation have been proposed for the removal of these types of pollutants from contaminated wastewater. Among all, adsorption is considered the most promising and economically viable. Various conducting polymers are described as superior adsorbents due to the presence of different functional groups on their backbone that can be easily tuned/functionalized and showed excellent feasibility in the removal of various toxic metal ion pollutants from wastewater. Here we review, numerous aspects of water pollution, heavy metal ions, their toxic effects on health, factors affecting adsorption, and the role of conducting polymers-based materials as adsorbents. Future research should focus on real water samples on a large scale and the enhancement of performance via novel functionalization of conducting polymers to fulfill these requirements.