How do material characteristics and antimicrobial mechanisms affect microbial control and water disinfection performance of metal nanoparticles?

Nanotechnology has been rapidly developing in the past decade, and metal nanomaterials have shown promising improvement in microbial control. Metal nanoparticles have been applied in medical settings for adequate disease spread control and to overcome the challenges of multidrug-resistant microorganisms. Recently, the demand for safe water supply has increased, requiring higher sanitation of the water treatment technology as well as being environmentally sustainable. However, the employed water disinfection technologies cannot meet the elevated demand due to limitations including chemical byproducts, immobility, energy consumption, etc. Metal nanomaterials are considered to be an alternative disinfection technology considering their high efficiency, mobility, and stability. A significant amount of research has been carried out on enhancing the antimicrobial efficiency of metal nanomaterials and determining the underlying antimicrobial mechanisms. This paper provides an overview of emerging metal nanomaterials development, including the synthesis method, material characteristics, disinfection performance, environmental factors, potential mechanism, limitations, and future opportunities in the water disinfection process.