Nanozyme-Based Portable Water Purification Systems for Villages and Emergency Situations: A New Approach

Access to clean and safe drinking water for all remains a global challenge, mainly for rural populations and areas affected by natural disasters or humanitarian crises. The traditional water quality treatment technologies can work well in laboratory or controlled settings, but they are usually applied under conditions unavailable in these types of conditions. Traditional water quality treatment methods are limited by established infrastructure, expensive operating costs, energy requirements, and the ability to perform in-field water treatment. To improve the barriers of traditional water quality treatment technologies, recently developed scientific discoveries of nanozymes, a new class of nanomaterials with enzyme-like catalytic activity, have shown the ability to decentralise water purification. Nanozymes provide a mechanism for water treatment that does not require the infrastructure or the cost of traditional water quality treatment methods. Also, nanozymes possess extremely high catalytic activity, chemical stability, are inexpensive, and are suitable for a variety of contaminants. This review gives a systematic overview of the development of suitable nanozyme-based portable water purification systems. It shows their catalytic mechanisms, the class of nanozymes used, and the design characteristics related to their working use, also highlighting the developments that consider the specific needs of rural contexts, provide rapid responses to disaster areas, and offer drinking water with reliable, simple, and sustainable apparatus.