Recent Advances in Phytochemical Based Cost-Effective Metal Oxide Nanoparticles Towards Wastewater Treatment

Nanotechnology has attracted a lot of attention in the last few decades, especially with the formation of novel nanoparticles with a wide range of uses. Conventional techniques, like chemical and physical methods, are widely used for the synthesis of nanoparticles. However, these methods have certain limitations. Thus, biological methods have been utilized which is known to overcome the limitation of conventional methods. The preparation of nanoparticles using phytochemicals has gained considerable attention in recent years due to its cheap, eco- friendly, and sustainability. In this regard, several studies had been performed to synthesize cost-effective metal oxide nanoparticles (zinc oxide, copper oxide, iron oxide, magnesium oxide) by phytochemical based biogenic approach. It was found phytochemical obtained from several plant-based extracts contain biomolecules such as flavonoids, alkaloids, amino acids, proteins, polysaccharides, etc., aiding in facile nanoparticle synthesis. In this chapter, we will focus majorly on phytochemical mediated synthesis of metal oxide nanoparticles and their application for wastewater treatment.