Current status and future direction for examining engineered nanoparticles in natural systems
- Author(s)
- Manuel D. Montano, Gregory V. Lowry, Frank von der Kammer, Julie Blue, James F. Ranville
- Abstract
The increasing manufacture and implementation of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) will continue to lead to
the release of these materials into the environment. Reliably assessing the environmental exposure risk of ENMs will
depend highly on the ability to quantify and characterise these materials in environmental samples. However, performing
these measurements is obstructed by the complexity of environmental sample matrices, physiochemical processes altering
the state of the ENM and the high background of naturally occurring nanoparticles (NNPs), which may be similar in size,
shape and composition to their engineered analogues. Current analytical techniques can be implemented to overcome
some of these obstacles, but the ubiquity of NNPs presents a unique challenge requiring the exploitation of properties that
discriminate engineered and natural nanomaterials. To this end, new techniques are being developed that take advantage of
the nature of ENMs to discern them from naturally occurring analogues. This paper reviews the current techniques utilised
in the detection and characterisation of ENMs in environmental samples as well as discusses promising new approaches to
overcome the high backgrounds of NNPs. Despite their occurrence in the atmosphere and soil, this review will be limited to
a discussion of aqueous-based samples containing ENMs, as this environment will serve as a principal medium for the
environmental dispersion of ENMs.- Organisation(s)
- External organisation(s)
- Colorado School of Mines, Cadmus Group Inc, Carnegie Mellon University
- Journal
- Environmental Chemistry
- Volume
- 11
- Pages
- 351-366
- No. of pages
- 16
- ISSN
- 1448-2517
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1071/EN14037
- Publication date
- 07-2014
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 104023 Environmental chemistry, 104002 Analytical chemistry, 105904 Environmental research, 210006 Nanotechnology
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Chemistry (miscellaneous), Geochemistry and Petrology, Environmental Chemistry
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/967e903b-e948-429e-9911-e614a2d4aab9