Sensors as tools for quantitation, nanotoxicity and nanomonitoring assessment of engineered nanomaterials

Abstract

The discovery of fullerenes in 1985 has ushered in an explosive growth in the applications of engineered nanomaterials and consumer products. Nanotechnology and engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) are being incorporated into a range of commercial products such as consumer electronics, cosmetics, imaging and sensors. Nanomaterials offer new possibilities for the development of novel sensing and monitoring technologies. Nanosensors can be classified under two main categories: (i) Nanotechnology-enabled sensors or sensors that are themselves nanoscale or have nanoscale materials or components, and (ii) Nanoproperty-quantifiable sensors or sensors that are used to measure nanoscale properties. The first category can eventually result in lower material cost, reduced weight and energy consumption. The second category can enhance our understanding of the potential toxic effects of emerging pollutants from nanomaterials including fullerenes, dendrimers, and carbon nanotubes. Despite the enormous literatures and reviews on Category I sensors, there are few sensors to measure nanoscale properties or sensors belonging to Category II. This class of nanosensors is an area of critical interest to nanotoxicology, detection and risk assessment, as well as for monitoring of environmental and/or biological exposure. This article discusses emerging fields of nanotoxicology and nanomonitoring including the challenges of characterizing engineered nanomaterials and the potentials of combining existing analytical techniques with conventional cytotoxicity methods. Two case studies are provided for development of Category II nanosensors for fullerene nanoparticles and quantum dots. One highlights the uniqueness of a portable, dissolved oxygen electrochemical sensor arrays capable of detecting the ENMs as well as provide rapid nanotoxicological information. This review has shown that addressing the complex and critical issues surrounding the environmental transformation and toxicity of ENMs must be accompanied by the creation of new approaches or further developments of existing instrumentation.

Detection, characterization and quantification of inorganic engineered nanomaterials: A review of techniques and methodological approaches for the analysis of complex samples

“…Although chemical sensors are considered well suited for monitoring of ENMs due to their low cost, sensitivity, portability and simplicity [210], the number of sensor devices developed and eventually tested on real samples is low, and still far from being succesfully applied to complex samples. Electrochemical, optical and mass sensitive sensors have been proposed for the detection of quantum dots, silver and gold nanoparticles.…”

Bio-Inspired/-Functional Colloidal Core-Shell Polymeric-Based NanoSystems: Technology Promise in Tissue Engineering, Bioimaging and NanoMedicine

“…Now, although most of the physical and chemical properties of QDs have been very attractive, issues regarding the toxicity (and insolubility) of the core constituent chemicals (such as cadmium and selenium) have been identified with possible harmful effects on human health raising serious concerns. Studies of QDs cytotoxicity are available [68,76] and therefore will not be repeated in detail here. To summarize, size, charge, concentration, outer coating bioactivity (capping material and functional groups), and oxidative, photolytic, and mechanical stability have each been implicated as determining factors in QDs toxicity [68,76].…”

“…Studies of QDs cytotoxicity are available [68,76] and therefore will not be repeated in detail here. To summarize, size, charge, concentration, outer coating bioactivity (capping material and functional groups), and oxidative, photolytic, and mechanical stability have each been implicated as determining factors in QDs toxicity [68,76]. Furthermore, it is well-established that QDs contain cytotoxic elements; such as cadmium ions [68].…”

Biomedical applications of nanobiosensors: the state-of-the-art

“…8,31,35,36 The combination of near field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has been used to detect chemicals on solid substrates with sub-wavelength (100 nm) special resolution. 40 Nanostructured electrochemical biosensors are prepared by immobilizing the biorecognition elements on the polycarbonate (PC) surrounding gold nanodisks (approximately, 30 nm in diameter) in nanoelectrode ensembles (NEEs) made in track-etched commercial membranes.…”

“…The application of submicron fiber-optic chemical probes has been developed by Kopelman et al, [21][22][23][24][27][28][29][30] who has developed chemical nanoprobes for monitoring pH and nitric oxide. The use of nanobiosensors for given analytes in medical, 31 industrial 8 and environmental [32][33][34][35][36] applications has meant that alternatives to bulky laboratory-based procedures, especially in the case of in vivo analysis. 27,28 The photonic explorer for bioanalysis with biologically localized embedding (PEBBLE) scheme has decisive advantages over most means of cellular measurement in terms of the small device size (ca.…”