Coronavirus disease-2019 has been one of the most challenging global epidemics of modern times with a large number of casualties combined with economic hardships across the world. Considering that there is still no definitive cure for the recent viral crisis, this article provides a review of nanomaterials with antiviral activity, with an emphasis on graphene and its derivatives, including graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide and graphene quantum dots. The possible interactions between surfaces of such nanostructured materials with coronaviruses are discussed. The antiviral mechanisms of graphene materials can be related to events such as the inactivation of virus and/or the host cell receptor, electrostatic trapping and physico-chemical destruction of viral species. These effects can be enhanced by functionalization and/or decoration of carbons with species that enhances graphene-virus interactions. The low-cost and large-scale preparation of graphene materials with enhanced antiviral performances is an interesting research-direction to be explored.
Production and utilization of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs), which are smart materials with ability of sensing and destroying chemical contaminants, is growing rapidly. However, these materials seem to have some ecological and health adverse effects. Hence, the main goal of this review study is to give a brief description about the recent developments of the commercial available engineered nano particles in the environmental remediation and also to note the current state of findings about the toxic effects of such advanced materials. The key references revealed the potential in vitro and/or in vivo toxic effects of some ENPs which are commonly used in environmental remediation. However, with respect to highly potential physicochemical and biochemical properties of ENPs, the studies which have been carried out till now are not ample to obtain satisfactory exposure data for both human beings and the environment. Therefore, more surveys should be done in this field to fill the gap of high quality data and to develop new engineered nanoparticles with minimum toxicity.
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