Biochar-Based Metallic Nanoparticle Catalysts and Their Applications

The reuse of waste materials to solve challenging environmental issues is one of the applied environmental management strategies that assures sustainable practices in an era of waste accumulation, water scarcity, and energy source transition. The biochar produced from different waste sources can be functionalized with nanomaterials to create efficient composites that are/could be applied in several environmental applications such as water remediation and energy production. Among different biochar–nanostructure composites, biochar–metallic composite has shown great potential to be applied effectively in a wide range of applications. The combination of biochar and metallic nanostructure creates a unique morphology with high surface area, porosity, and plentiful carbon surface functional groups. This comes along with optical and magnetic properties that make such a chemical structure a highly reactant catalyst. In this chapter, we are summarizing the recent research efforts focused on the applications of biochar-based metallic nanoparticles. We discussed the synthesis routes and properties of this unique structure highlighting its important applications in water remediation, energy storage, and energy generation.