Abstract
In recent years, the application of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) in environmental remediation gained increasing attention. Due to their large surface area and high reactivity, ENMs offer the potential for the efficient removal of pollutants from environmental matrices with better performances compared to conventional techniques. However, their fate and safety upon environmental application, which can be associated with their release into the environment, are largely unknown. It is essential to develop systems that can predict ENM interactions with biological systems, their overall environmental and human health impact. Until now, Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) tools have been employed to investigate ENMs potential environmental impact, from raw material production, design and to their final disposal. However, LCA studies focused on the environmental impact of the production phase lacking information on their environmental impact deriving from in situ employment. A recently developed eco-design framework aimed to fill this knowledge gap by using ecotoxicological tools that allow the assessment of potential hazards posed by ENMs to natural ecosystems and wildlife. In the present review, we illustrate the development of the eco-design framework and review the application of ecotoxicology as a valuable strategy to develop ecosafe ENMs for environmental remediation. Furthermore, we critically describe the currently available ENMs for marine environment remediation and discuss their pros and cons in safe environmental applications together with the need to balance benefits and risks promoting an environmentally safe nanoremediation (ecosafe) for the future.
Highlights
Environmental pollution results from the rising of industrial activities and urbanization, which constantly discharge man-made wastes into the environment altering its equilibrium, integrity, and health
Nanotechnology is the science of the 21st Century that can offer the most promising devices to counteract with chemical pollution, including the marine environmental remediation
Based on their main chemical compositions, engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) used for marine environment nanoremediation can be broadly grouped as: (i) Metal oxides based nanomaterials; (ii) magnetic-core nanocomposites (21%); (iii) carbon-based and polysaccharides-based nanostructured materials employed at the same percentage
Summary
Environmental pollution results from the rising of industrial activities and urbanization, which constantly discharge man-made wastes into the environment altering its equilibrium, integrity, and health. As a future goal of the remediation industry, environmental safety represents the main challenge for ENMs employed in marine nanoremediation and can be achieved by using environmental risk assessment approaches [24] In such a way, the ecotoxicological testing strategy represents a fundamental aspect since it adapts the standardized ecotoxicity tests, or newly developed ones, allowing the determination of the potential impact of ENM/Ps toward different levels of biological organization, providing suitable toxicity data. Effect-based tools including in vitro and in vivo bioassays have been successfully used to assess exposure and hazard for legacy and emerging marine pollutants, they present some limitations for ENMs [49,50,51] Conventional biomarkers, such as those developed upon exposure to other toxicants (e.g., oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation, biotransformation and genotoxicity) have been successful to assess ENM effects at cellular level and identify common biological pathways, or determine toxicity [52,53]. Due to the peculiar characteristics of ENMs, several issues must be taken into consideration including the behavior of ENMs in exposure media
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