Occurrence, behaviour and effects of inorganic nanoparticles in the environment

Abstract

Research in environmental risk assessment (ERA) of nanomaterials (NMs) has been an important incentive to develop analytical approaches to better understand and quantify fate and ecotoxicity of these materials in standard media and field environmental samples. This chapter presents and overview of the most recent insights in fate and ecotoxicity of NMs to steer analytical chemists to the most pressing analytical needs to further ERA of NMs thus avoid making it overly conservative. Sensitive analysis is required to quantify and characterize NMs at generally low expected concentrations (μg L− 1 to ng L− 1 range). Moreover, analysis of the core NM composition is required because many NMs are subject to transformation reactions in the environment, which in turn affects their fate and ecotoxicity. At the very minimum, dissolution of the NMs should be quantified, especially during standard ecotoxicity assays, while mesocosm-scale experiments have revealed unexpected NM behaviour that otherwise does not appear from standard tests. Finally, databases of relevant fate descriptors need development to aid NM fate prediction, similarly to soluble contaminants.

Keywords

Ecotoxicity; Environmental risk assessment; Modelling; Nanomaterials

Published in

Comprehensive analytical chemistry
2021, volume: 93, number: 93, pages: 1-34
Title: Analysis and characterisation of metal-based nanomaterials
Publisher: Elsevier

SLU Authors

• Cornelis, Geert

  • Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.coac.2021.02.011
• ISBN: 978-0-323-85305-7

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/129787