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 works reported on the environmental impact of these nanomaterials. Future works should focus on the process that would have the best potential to be cost-effectively commercialized at industrial scale which, based on this review, looks to be the CDI technology.