The production of significant quantities of engineered nanomaterials will inevitably result in the introduction of these materials to the environment. Mobility in a well-defined porous medium was evaluated for eight particulate products of nanochemistry to assess their potential for migration in porous media such as groundwater aquifers and water treatment plant filters. Contrary to the assertion that nanomaterials present monolithic environmental risks, here we show that these nanomaterials exhibit widely differing transport behaviors. Fullerene-based nanomaterials that had been functionalized to facilitate dispersal in water displayed the highest mobilities, with a calculated potential to migrate approximately 10 m in unfractured sand aquifers. Colloidal aggregates of C60, which have been the focus of recent toxicity studies, were among the least mobile of the nanomaterials evaluated.

In this study we report on the electrokinetic behavior of colloidal aggregates of C60fullerenes (n-C60) produced through two different techniques: solvent exchange and extended mixing with water. In the first technique, used to produce colloidal materials in several recent toxicity and transport studies, an organic solvent such as tetrahydrofuran (THF) is used to dissolve the C60 before mixing with water. The second technique is more indicative of conditions that might occur in natural aquatic systems. Both types of n-C60 were observed to be negatively charged under a variety of solution chemistries; however, the n-C60 formed using THF was more strongly charged. We conclude that n-C60 likely acquires charge through charge transfer from the organic solvent (when present) and surface hydrolysis reactions. Nevertheless, C60 is capable of acquiring charge and becoming dispersed as n-C60 in water without the aid of organic solvents, a pathway that may be important in determining the mobility of fullerenes in natural systems. These findings also show that n-C60 made using THF retains a portion of the solvent in the cluster structure, subsequently influencing the characteristics of the n-C60 and possibly requiring a re-interpretation of results from recent studies on n-C60 toxicity using THF-derived materials.

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Products of nanochemistry have been proposed in a number of applications ranging from soil stabilization and cosmetics to groundwater remediation. A fundamental understanding of the transport properties of these materials is essential to assess their efficacy and environmental impact in such applications. In this work, we consider the effect of flow on nanoparticle transport and deposition in porous media. The transport of three aqueous suspensions of fullerenes in a well-characterized porous medium is compared with that of two oxide nanomaterials at two flow rates. Despite significant differences in surface chemistry and size, the fullerenes exhibited an unexpected and similar breakthrough behavior at the higher flow rate. A striking characteristic of the fullerene breakthrough curves obtained at the higher Darcy velocity was an initial enhancement in nanoparticle deposition shortly after the passage of the first pore volume of suspension, followed by an increase in passage. This velocity-sensitive "affinity transition" in the initial deposition of nanoparticles in the porous medium was observed for fullerene-based materials only at the higher velocity and was in no case observed for silica or titania nanoparticles. The removal of fullerene-based nanoparticles was observed to converge to a level that was independent of flow velocity, suggesting that under these conditions time scales for attachment or reorganization on the surface are greater than the time scale for transport to collector surfaces.

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The objective of this work was to provide an in‐depth analysis of the particulate composition of influent and effluent streams for granular media filters at full‐scale water treatment plants. Findings from these analyses were evaluated with respect to the design and operation of the treatment system and the water qualities involved. On a mass basis, inorganic and organic materials in the filter influent and effluent streams were predominantly present in the submicron‐size fraction (defined here as particles with diameters between 30 and 450 nm), regardless of whether direct or conventional filtration was used. However, variability in results from the different facilities indicated that water quality and treatment type significantly influenced the size distribution of organic and inorganic materials. On the basis of a mass concentration, the inorganic composition of the particulate‐size fractions was largely hardness cations, silica, and organics, plus residual amounts of iron and/or aluminum.