Citation:

Tolaymat, T., A. El Badawy, A. Genaidy, W. Abdelraheem, AND R. Sequeira. Analysis of Metallic and Metal Oxide Nanomaterial Environmental Emissions. J.Klemes and R. Lozano (ed.), JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, 143:401-412, (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.12.094

Impact/Purpose:

The objective of this paper is to analyze state-of-the-art research on metallic and metal oxide ENM emissions and releases into the environment and to assess the gaps in knowledge in order to advance the body of knowledge for regulatory purposes. The specific aims of this research are three-fold: (1) to document the available knowledge in the peer-reviewed scientific literatures with respect to the emissions and releases of metallic and metal oxide nanoparticles into environmental compartments, (2) to outline the data gaps in ENM, and (c) to discuss the positive and negative implications of emission data availability and gaps with respect to environmental compartments and biological species. To our knowledge, there is no integrated study on the analysis of peer-reviewed literature on metallic and metal oxide ENM emissions and releases into the environment. This study is intended to fill in this gap. In this study we were also interested in assessing exposure data for other types of surging metallic and metal oxide ENMs such as nano-zero valent iron (nZVI), copper (Cu), aluminum (Al), gold (Au), aluminum oxide (Al₂0₃), and copper oxide ENMs which have been in increased use in the past few years.

Description:

The current study presents evidence on metallic and metal oxide engineered nanomaterial (ENM) emissions into the environment and an analytic perspective of the outcomes of evaluated studies with respect to different individual end points along the lifecycle trajectory. The key findings suggest that 1) the published literature on emissions of metallic ENMs is limited in both the number and information available on the characteristics of emitted ENMs; 2) the studies are classified as experimental and computational studies focused on predicting ENM emissions; 3) the majority of studies investigated ENM emissions during nanomaterial use and waste management, followed by raw material manufacturing, and finally, nano-enabled product manufacturing; 4) the studies primarily reported the concentration/quantity of emitted ENMs, whereas the physical-chemical characteristics of emitted ENMs were rarely measured or reported; and 5) the published literature primarily focused on emissions of silver and titanium dioxide ENMs and lacked similar information on other surging metallic and metal oxide ENMs such as nano-zero valent iron (nZVI), aluminum (Al), and aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) ENMs. The evidence suggests that emitted nanoparticles into the air cover a wide range of concentrations below and above the allowable occupational exposure limits. The concentrations of nanoparticles in water systems are considered in the toxic to very toxic range for a variety of biological species. Given the critical gaps in knowledge, one cannot read across different sources of emissions for metallic and metal oxide ENMs hampering efforts with respect to understanding realistic scenarios for transformations in the natural environment and biological media.

URLs/Downloads:

Record Details: