Smart adsorbents: Innovations and advances in pesticide residue removal from water – A review

The growing contamination of water sources by emerging pollutants, such as pesticide residues, poses significant environmental and health risks. Traditional water treatment methods often face challenges in terms of cost-effectiveness and regeneration. Smart adsorbents, offering self-healing properties, reusability, and environmental adaptability, provide a promising alternative. This review explores recent advancements in self-healing and stimuli-responsive adsorbents, such as thermo-responsive and pH-sensitive materials, for pesticide removal. Materials like bio-nanoporous carbon, magnetic nanoparticles, and metal-organic frameworks show outstanding performance due to their high surface area and tunable pore structures. Adsorption behaviour, often analysed through the Langmuir isotherm, suggests efficient monolayer adsorption and enhanced selectivity. Additionally, the potential for resource recovery and reuse of spent adsorbents adds to their environmental sustainability. However, challenges related to cost, scalability, and regeneration need addressing. Future research should focus on integrating intelligent water management systems with advanced technologies such as the Internet of Things and real-time monitoring applications to enhance regeneration processes and support sustainable water remediation. • Persistent pesticide residues in water are effectively addressed by novel adsorbents. • Stimuli-responsive materials assure selective adsorption and easy regeneration. • Self-healing adsorbents maintain high efficiency even after many cycles of adsorption. • Nanostructured smart materials like MOFs, CNTs, and bio-based materials enhance pesticide removal. • Assessment of environmental risks and the remediation of pesticide contamination.