Advanced applications and current status of green nanotechnology in the environmental industry

Abstract Environmental pollution is proliferating gradually due to the rapid increase in human activities in the field of mining, burning of biomass, automobile, urbanization, and industrialization. All these events are posing a serious threat to modern civilization. Around the world, pollution affects the different forms of life comprising plants, animals, organisms as well as human beings directly or indirectly, thereby causing a fatal imbalance in our ecological system. For a balanced, sustainable, and ecological growth of human society, the development of some novel and innovative methods for purifying the polluted environment is the need of the hour. In this context, nanotechnology is the most promising, broad, and interdisciplinary field of research that can play a considerable and decisive role in developing some greener technologies for this purpose. Green nanotechnology is primarily associated with the development of some cleaner technology that can strongly favor the alteration in the shape and size of nanomaterials and also leads to a reduction in the resultant pollution from the production of nanoscale materials. To increase the sustainability, this technology utilizes the principles of green chemistry. Natural sources and their ingredients are used for the cleaner production of materials, which leads to the formation of green/biogenic nanoparticles. The green nanoparticles can help in solving the serious threats faced by the environment in the field of water treatment, climate change, renewable energy, solar energy conversion, and pollutant removal. In this regard, green synthesis of nanoparticles is recognized as an amended and novel approach because it is relatively reproducible, sustainable, high energy saver, generates more stable and environmentally benign end products. This chapter comprises a detailed discussion on the current status of green nanotechnology as a part of the environmental industry, which is followed by the green synthesis of various nanoparticles, and their multitudinous advanced applications in the environmental industry.