The anthropogenic release of nanoparticles (NPs) to the environment poses a potential hazard to human health and life. The interplay between NPs and biological processes is receiving increasing attention. Plants expose huge interfaces to the air and soil environment. Thus, NPs are adsorbed to the plant surfaces, taken up through nano- or micrometer-scale openings of plants and are translocated within the plant body. Persistent NPs associated with plants enter the human food chain. In this Opinion, we document the occurrence and character of NPs in the environment and evaluate the need for future research on toxicological effects. Plant nanotoxicology is introduced as a discipline that explores the effects and toxicity mechanisms of NPs in plants, including transport, surface interactions and material-specific responses.

Diffusion is a key property determining the suitability of nanocrystalline materials for use in numerous applications, and it is crucial to the assessment of the extent to which the interfaces in nanocrystalline samples differ from conventional grain boundaries. The present article offers an overview of diffusion in nanocrystalline metals and alloys. Emphasis is placed on the interfacial characteristics that affect diffusion in nanocrystalline materials, such as structural relaxation, grain growth, porosity, and the specific type of interface. In addition, the influence of intergranular amorphous phases and intergranular melting on diffusion is addressed, and the atomistic simulation of GB structures and diffusion is briefly summarized. On the basis of the available diffusion data, the diffusion‐mediated processes of deformation and induced magnetic anisotropy are discussed.

Iron tracer diffusion was studied in soft-magnetic nanocrystalline Fe90Zr7B3 without any influence of porosity, relaxation, or grain growth. The interfacial diffusion characteristics differ substantially from grain boundaries in metals due to the presence of an intergranular amorphous phase. The reduced diffusivity in thin amorphous layers compared to in the initial amorphous phase indicates the effect of confinement. The indication of a second, fast interfacial diffusion path is found and quantitatively analyzed within the framework of a two interface-type model.

Magnetic tweezers gain increasing interest for applications in biology. Here, a setup of magnetic tweezers is introduced using micropatterned conducting lines on transparent glass slides. Magnetic particles of 1 μm diameter were injected in barley cell vacuoles using a microinject system under microscopic control. Time dependent tracking of the particles after application of a magnetic field was used to determine the viscosity of vacuolar sap in vivo relative to water and isolated vacuolar fluid. The viscosity of vacuolar sap in cells was about 2-fold higher than that of extracted vacuolar fluid and 5 times higher than that of water.

Highly nonlinear electrically insulating materials have applications in high voltage cable applications. In this contribution, nanocomposites were prepared by blending ZnO nanoparticles or ZnO nanoparticles treated with aqueous SnX 2 (X= F or Cl), with EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer). The treated powders were a heterogeneous mixture of ZnO and SnO and show enhanced nonlinearity compared to pure ZnO. It was demonstrated that at certain filler concentrations, the resulting nanocomposites exhibited highly nonlinear I-V characteristics. We attempt to draw correlations between the phases present in the powders, the morphology, the nonlinear behavior of the powders, and the composite nonlinear I-V properties.