Nanoremediation: Nanomaterials and Nanotechnologies for Environmental Cleanup

Abstract

Different global events such as industrial development and the population increment have triggered the presence and persistence of several organic and inorganic contaminants, representing a risk for the environment and human health. Consequently, the search and application of novel technologies for alleviating the challenge of environmental pollution are urgent. Nanotechnology is an emerging science that could be employed in different fields. In particular, Nanoremediation is a promising strategy defined as the engineered materials employed to clean up the environment, is an effective, rapid, and efficient technology to deal with persistent compounds such as pesticides, chlorinated solvents, halogenated chemicals, or heavy metals. Furthermore, nanoremediation is a sustainable alternative to eliminate emerging pollutants such as pharmaceutics or personal care products. Due to the variety of nanomaterials and their versatility, they could be employed in water, soil, or air media. This review provides an overview of the application of nanomaterials for media remediation. It analyzes the state of the art of different nanomaterials such as metal, carbon, polymer, and silica employed for water, soil, and air remediation.

Stability Phenomena Associated with the Development of Polymer-Based Nanopesticides

“…Polymer-based nanopesticides, as for any other regulated product, have to demonstrate their safe use without posing potential risks to the consumer and the environment [ 107 ]. Therefore, further studies have to be done to understand the compatibility between the pesticides and encapsulation materials and the encapsulation mechanism of pesticide formulations [ 99 ].…”

Vanadium‐Incorporated Mesoporous Silica as Oxidase Mimic for Colorimetric Dopamine Detection and Anticancer Activity

“…[1][2][3] Artificial enzymes have emerged as one of the most unique and appropriate catalysts to imitate natural enzymes since they can compensate for natural enzyme deficiencies [4] with diverse applications in different fields like biosensing, [5,6] biocatalysis, [7] nanomedicine, [8] tumor therapy, [9] and environmental remediation. [10] Nanomaterials with enzymelike properties (nanozymes) have provoked researchers' curiosity worldwide because of their ease of preparation, scale-up, extended storage length, excellent stability, broad pH/temperature tolerance compared to bio-enzymes, and low-cost availability. [11][12][13] This nanostructured material can detect a wide range of metabolites by mimicking enzyme functions such as oxidase, peroxidase, catalase, and superoxide dismutase without having any structural resemblance to natural enzymes.…”

“…The development of cost‐effective and straightforward sensing technology for the rapid detection of disease biomarkers in biomedical applications has always received significant attention [1–3] . Artificial enzymes have emerged as one of the most unique and appropriate catalysts to imitate natural enzymes since they can compensate for natural enzyme deficiencies [4] with diverse applications in different fields like biosensing, [5,6] biocatalysis, [7] nanomedicine, [8] tumor therapy, [9] and environmental remediation [10] . Nanomaterials with enzyme‐like properties (nanozymes) have provoked researchers′ curiosity worldwide because of their ease of preparation, scale‐up, extended storage length, excellent stability, broad pH/temperature tolerance compared to bio‐enzymes, and low‐cost availability [11–13] .…”

The Use of Silver Nanoparticles in Environmental Remediation

“…Therefore, it has gained multidimensional application [21][22][23]. Among the different applications, the pages of the literature are enriched with enormous number of environmental applications of silver nanoparticles [24][25][26][27]. Considering the safe and biocompatible nature of the AgNPs, it becomes worthy to apply it for water, soil and air remediation purpose in the form electro sensor, photocatalyst, fluorogenic probe etc.…”