Critical Reviews on Engineered Nanoparticles in Environmental Remediation
Brij Bhushan Tewari
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Guyana, P.O.Box 101110, Georgetown, Guyana.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Environmental contamination is one of the important issues that the world is facing today, it is always expanding and leading to the grave and harmful effect on the Earth. Nanoparticles have a diameter less than 100 nm exhibit new size-dependent properties compared with the bulk material. Engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) have unique characteristics in addition to the high surface area-to-volume ratio, which may increase their toxicity relative to bulk materials. Due to the high volume production of ENPs products such as carbon nanotubes, titanium dioxide, silver, zinc oxide environmental exposure to these compounds is very common. ENPs have their unique properties and applications in the areas of medicine, food& drink, construction, automotive, textiles, energy, electronics, environment etc. The present critical review is focused on the recent development of the applications of ENPs in the environmental remediation and their toxic effects.
Keywords: Nanotechnology, engineered nanoparticles, environmental remedy, carbonaceous materials, metal oxides, zerovalent metals, polymers, semiconductor devices