3rd TAGRA

The increasing contamination of water resources by petroleum-derived pollutants, synthetic dyes, and toxic organic compounds has created an urgent need for efficient, versatile, and environmentally sustainable remediation technologies. Carbon-based materials have emerged as promising platforms for environmental applications owing to their tunable surface, high surface area, porous structures, chemical stability, and ability to serve as supports for catalytically active species. In this contribution, our recent studies on the design and application of carbon-based materials for water remediation are highlighted. Carbonaceous materials with tailored surface properties were employed for the efficient removal of petroleum-related contaminants and a variety of organic dyes from aqueous media, demonstrating the importance of surface functionality, porosity, and pollutant–surface interactions in adsorption performance. In a complementary approach, carbon-based substrates were utilized for the immobilization of metal nanoparticles, providing heterogeneous catalytic systems with enhanced efficiency and reusability for the transformation of nitroaromatic pollutants into more valuable products. These studies demonstrate that rational engineering of carbon-based materials can provide multifunctional platforms capable of addressing different classes of water pollutants through adsorption and catalytic transformation. The combination of high adsorption capacity, effective nanoparticle stabilization, catalytic activity, and recyclability highlights the potential of carbon-based materials as versatile and sustainable materials for advanced environmental remediation.