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This paper intends to review the state of the art of new generation nanomaterials – carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene, zeolites, aquaporin (AQP) for water desalination. The major applications of these nanomaterials in water desalination are critically discussed based on their functions in different types of processes. In addition, the potential impact of these nanomaterials on human health and ecosystem as well as its potential interference with treatment processes was also briefly discussed. It can be seen that the use of these advanced materials in membranes for reverse osmosis, membrane distillation, forward osmosis, pervaporation, and electrodialysis, formed the bulk of the reported works in the literature. Apart from that, these nanomaterials also have been reported to be utilized as adsorbents, supercapacitor, and capacitive deionization (CDI) for desalination purpose. However there has been very limited …