Nanomaterials in the environment: Behavior, fate, bioavailability, and effects—An updated review

Abstract

The present review covers developments in studies of nanomaterials (NMs) in the environment since our much cited review in 2008. We discuss novel insights into fate and behavior, metrology, transformations, bioavailability, toxicity mechanisms, and environmental impacts, with a focus on terrestrial and aquatic systems. Overall, the findings were that: 1) despite substantial developments, critical gaps remain, in large part due to the lack of analytical, modeling, and field capabilities, and also due to the breadth and complexity of the area; 2) a key knowledge gap is the lack of data on environmental concentrations and dosimetry generally; 3) substantial evidence shows that there are nanospecific effects (different from the effects of both ions and larger particles) on the environment in terms of fate, bioavailability, and toxicity, but this is not consistent for all NMs, species, and relevant processes; 4) a paradigm is emerging that NMs are less toxic than equivalent dissolved materials but more toxic than the corresponding bulk materials; and 5) translation of incompletely understood science into regulation and policy continues to be challenging. There is a developing consensus that NMs may pose a relatively low environmental risk, but because of uncertainty and lack of data in many areas, definitive conclusions cannot be drawn. In addition, this emerging consensus will likely change rapidly with qualitative changes in the technology and increased future discharges.

Electrochemical biosensors for pathogen detection

“…However, the potential toxicity of materials that may have been deposited on paper substrates, such as nanomaterials, should still be considered when assessing the environmental impact of a disposable single-use biosensing platform. For example, the long-term environmental and health impacts of nanomaterials remain active areas of research (Colvin, 2003;Klaine et al 2008;Lead et al 2018). Although paper-based devices have historically been most commonly used with colorimetric sensing techniques, they have been increasingly investigated for electrochemical biosensing (Ahmed et al 2016;Meredith et al 2016).…”

Impact of silver nanoparticles (AgNP) on soil microbial community depending on functionalization, concentration, exposure time, and soil texture

“…Nevertheless, Ag10-COOH induced both adverse and advantageous effects in view of the investigated individual biological parameters. Here, individual defense strategies [28,69] as well as species dependent toxicological susceptibility [17,52,70] of the biological parameters might be the underlying reasons.…”

“…The concentration of AgNP strongly influences their physico-chemical transformation. Once released into the environment, AgNP concentration is crucial for dissolution and aggregation mechanisms [28]. Merrifield et al [63] documented AgNP homoaggregation as insignificant at realistic environmental concentrations, whereby dissolution and also heteroaggregation processes were more likely.…”

“…The coating may also provide other functionalities, such as biocompatibility or targeting of specific cells in biomedical applications [27]. For example, AgNP can be coated by citrate or polyvinylpyrrolidine to increase their stability [28], modified with ATP to act as a selective antibiotic [29] or equipped with COOH-and NH 2 -groups to affect their surface charge in terms of their function in imaging and drug delivery [30]. Once released into the environment, the surface functionalization of AgNP significantly determines its physico-chemical fate, its bioavailability and its toxicity [22,26].…”

Cu(II) and Gd(III) doped boehmite nanostructures: a comparative study of electrical property and thermal stability

“…Advancement of humankind put its giant footmark in every branch of science and technology and comes out with flourishing results like nanoscience and nanotechnology which enables us to go to any extent in material research that is still undiscovered. Nanotechnology and nanoscience is the pioneer of producing significantly promising nano-materials with applications in various fields of electronics [1,2], catalysis [3][4][5][6], energy storage [7,8], pharmaceutics and medical sciences [9][10][11][12][13]. Nowadays, researchers particularly focuses on multifunctional or hybrid nanomaterials those are having multiple areas of application.…”