{"title":"Chemical Reactivity of Weathered Nanoplastics and Their Interactions with Heavy Metals","authors":"Yingnan Huang, Fei Dang, Yujun Wang","doi":"10.1039/d4en00801d","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"There is growing concern about the threat that nanoplastics (NPs) pose to ecosystems. However, a comprehensive risk assessment of NPs is currently constrained by the paucity of knowledge on the chemical reactivity of NPs, which were previously thought to be chemically inert. This review identifies the chemical reactivity of NPs that have undergone abiotic and biotic weathering, including the formation of free radicals, the increase in the content of oxygen-containing functional groups, and the release of plastic leachates. Their interaction with legacy contaminants, such as heavy metals (HMs), is then examined, highlighting their critical role in the oxidation and reduction of HMs, through free radical-mediated redox processes and electron shuttling by carbonyl groups. This review offers new insights into the risk of NPs, where their interaction with legacy contaminants determines the long-term exposure scenario for ecosystems. The unexpectedly large pool of reactive NPs in nature will not only affect their risks but also impact the biogeochemistry of HMs and other contaminants that could react with free radicals and carbonyl groups.","PeriodicalId":73,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science: Nano","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Environmental Science: Nano","FirstCategoryId":"6","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d4en00801d","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
There is growing concern about the threat that nanoplastics (NPs) pose to ecosystems. However, a comprehensive risk assessment of NPs is currently constrained by the paucity of knowledge on the chemical reactivity of NPs, which were previously thought to be chemically inert. This review identifies the chemical reactivity of NPs that have undergone abiotic and biotic weathering, including the formation of free radicals, the increase in the content of oxygen-containing functional groups, and the release of plastic leachates. Their interaction with legacy contaminants, such as heavy metals (HMs), is then examined, highlighting their critical role in the oxidation and reduction of HMs, through free radical-mediated redox processes and electron shuttling by carbonyl groups. This review offers new insights into the risk of NPs, where their interaction with legacy contaminants determines the long-term exposure scenario for ecosystems. The unexpectedly large pool of reactive NPs in nature will not only affect their risks but also impact the biogeochemistry of HMs and other contaminants that could react with free radicals and carbonyl groups.
期刊介绍:
Environmental Science: Nano serves as a comprehensive and high-impact peer-reviewed source of information on the design and demonstration of engineered nanomaterials for environment-based applications. It also covers the interactions between engineered, natural, and incidental nanomaterials with biological and environmental systems. This scope includes, but is not limited to, the following topic areas:
Novel nanomaterial-based applications for water, air, soil, food, and energy sustainability
Nanomaterial interactions with biological systems and nanotoxicology
Environmental fate, reactivity, and transformations of nanoscale materials
Nanoscale processes in the environment
Sustainable nanotechnology including rational nanomaterial design, life cycle assessment, risk/benefit analysis