Author Archive

Top 10 Reviewers for Environmental Science: Nano

In celebration of Peer Review Week, with the theme of Recognition for Review – we would like to highlight the top 10 reviewers for Environmental Science: Nano in 2016, as selected by the editor for their significant contribution to the journal.

Name Institution
Dr Armand Masion CEREGE
Professor Debora Rodrigues University of Houston
Dr Ralf Kägi EAWAG
Dr Arturo Keller University of California, Satan Barbara
Dr Anne Anderson Utah State University
Dr Leanne Gilbertson University of Pittsburgh
Dr Nathalie Tufenkji McGill University
Dr Navid Saleh University of Texas at Austin
Dr Serge Stoll University of Geneva
Dr Jeffrey Nason Oregon State University

We would like to say a massive thank you to these reviewers as well as the Environmental Science: Nano board and all of the environmental chemistry community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

Keep an eye on our Environmental Science: Processes& Impacts and Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology blogs where the top 10 reviewers for each journal will be revealed.

Review to win!
As a little added bonus to celebrate Peer Review Week, for the next four weeks our reviewers will be in with a chance of winning a fantastic prize! Simply submit a review for any of our journals between 19 September and 16 October 2016 and you will be automatically eligible for a chance to win one of our fantastic prizes.

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25th Japan Society for Environmental Chemistry

The 25th Japan Society for Environmental Chemistry Annual Meeting was held in Niigata, Japan on 8-10 June 2016.

During the award ceremony Hiromitsu Urakami from the Royal Society of Chemistry presented several certificates to poster prize winners on behalf of our environmental science journals.

Congratulations to all of the winners!

Environmental Science: Nano winner:

Kosuke Tanaka, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology

Poster title: Concentration of persistent organic pollutants in microplastics from marine surface water and evaluation of the risk of ingestion by marine organisms

And the winners for the Environmental Science: Process & Impacts and Environmental Science: Water Research and Technology poster prizes were Tomohiko Nakano and Suzumi Nishimura. More details can be found on our  ES: Processes & Impacts and ES:Water blogs.

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Will nanoparticle uptake in maize plants effect human health?

As nanoparticles find their way into more products, consumers and scientists alike are concerned about the impact their spread may have on our health. When answering this question, it is important to consider not just our direct interaction with nanoparticles through consumer products that incorporate them, but also the ways they might indirectly make their way into our environment. For instance, nanoparticles in the soil could be taken up by plants that we might later eat.

As a global food staple, maize is an ideal candidate for a comprehensive investigation of this topic. In a recent study published in Environmental Science: Nano, a team of researchers investigated the extent to which maize plants take up zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles—one of the most widely used nanomaterials—and the pathways by which they do so. Their results suggest that ZnO nanoparticles dissolve into Zn2+ ions to make their way into the epidermis and roots of the plants, but rarely translocate to the shoots.

The researchers grew maize hydroponically, adding different concentrations of ZnO nanoparticles or Zn2+ ions to the water. Unsurprisingly, higher concentrations of zinc in the growth medium correlated with higher concentrations of zinc in the plants. The zinc content in the maize plants was virtually identical whether the plants were grown in ZnO solution or Zn2+ solution, suggesting that most ZnO nanoparticles make their way into maize plants by first dissolving into Zn2+, instead of being taken up whole. Zinc taken up by this pathway tended to form phosphate complexes inside the plants, largely preventing it from moving upwards into the shoots.

However, TEM imaging of plants treated with fluorescently labeled ZnO nanoparticles showed that some intact nanoparticles did find their way into the maize plants. These nanoparticles accumulated mostly in the root cortex, occasionally making their way into the vascular tissue. As with the dissolved zinc, though, the zinc oxide nanoparticles were often biotransformed to zinc phosphate and prevented from moving into the shoots.

It seems that in the case of maize, zinc oxide nanoparticles do not directly impact the parts of the plant that we would eat, but excessive accumulation of zinc compounds could potentially affect the plant’s overall health. It is unclear from this study whether the findings can be generalized to interactions between other crops and other types of nanoparticles, or even whether the pathway holds for soil-grown (as opposed to hydroponic) maize plants. Nevertheless, it provides a first step towards a comprehensive understanding of plants’ responses to and defenses against nanoparticles.

To access the full article, download a copy for free* by clicking the link below:

Accumulation, speciation and uptake pathway of ZnO nanoparticles in maize

Jitao Lv, Shuzhen Zhang, Lei Luo, Jing Zhang, Ke Yang and  Peter Christie
DOI: 10.1039/C4EN00064A

Liked this blog post? Read Laurel’s previous entry on how rare earth elements trace nanoparticles through the environment.

* Access is free through a registered RSC account – click here to register

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SNO Emerging Investigator

And the winner is….Debora Rodrigues

The SNO Emerging Investigator gives recognition to emerging scientists and engineers working in the area of Sustainable Nanotechnology. Environmental Science: Nano is pleased to announce the inaugural winner is Professor Debora Rodrigues. Professor Rodrigues research on carbon-based materials is well recognized and covers both applications of nanomaterials for improving water quality and implications on the safety of nanomaterials.  As an independent investigator, she has published widely in these areas.  In 2012 she received a U.S. National Science Early CAREER Award  “Toxicology of graphene-based nanomaterials: A molecular biotechnology approach”.  At the University of Houston, Professor Rodrigues is known as an outstanding researcher, a passionate educator and a role model.  Editor-in-Chief Vicki Grassian says that Professor Rodrigues was selected because of her pioneering and outstanding contributions to the field of sustainable nanotechnology including nanotoxicology and applications of nanotechnology in water remediation.


The picture shows Environmental Science: Nano Editor-in-Chief, Vicki Grassian (Left) and Executive Editor, Harpal Minhas (right) presenting Debora Rodrigues (middle) with her award at the 2014 SNO Conference.


About Debora

After completing her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Michigan State University in 2007, Debora moved to Yale University focusing her research on investigating the antimicrobial effects of carbon nanotubes on viruses and bacteria as well as their impact on soil microbial community. In 2010 she became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Houston.

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Health effects of nanoceria

Nanomaterials have shown such great potential to advance science and engineering that sometimes research on their applications can skip ahead of safety tests.

Nanoceria, a commonly used nanomaterial, is one such substance. These fine grains of cerium oxide have been proposed for use in fuels, sunscreens, and even pharmaceutical treatments, but the effects of long-term exposure have not been comprehensively investigated. Now, in a critical review published in Environmental Science: Nano’s themed issue, a team of pharmacists and environmental chemists have compiled and analyzed the available research on nanoceria’s health effects.

Nanoceria appears to have minimal effects when applied to the skin, and is not absorbed into the body through the digestive tract. However, once it makes its way into the bloodstream, whether through inhalation or direct injection, it can travel throughout the body.

Nanoceria is biopersistent, meaning that it does not dissolve or break down in the body, but instead builds up. When it finds its way into certain organs—such as the lungs or the liver—it can take months to completely leave, and can lead to inflammation and abnormal tissue growth. As with many hazardous materials, the risks are greater with higher doses or longer-term exposure.

The researchers propose that nanoceria’s toxic effects occur through inducing oxidative stress, an imbalance between oxidizing molecules and antioxidants that can disrupt biochemical pathways in the body. Because the surface properties of nanomaterials are believed to have the greatest influence on their potential toxicity, the authors suggest that coating the particles with a biologically inert material or altering their surface structure could reduce their impacts.

Nanoceria should not be indiscriminately avoided based on these findings—and some research has found positive biological applications for the substance, and even essential chemicals like water can be toxic in high enough doses. Rather, scientists working with these particles should understand their potential risks and work to minimize them.

To access the full article, download a copy for free* by clicking the link below.

The yin: an adverse health perspective of nanoceria: uptake, distribution, accumulation, and mechanisms of its toxicity
DOI: 10.1039/c4en00039k
R. Yokel et al.

Liked this blog? Find out more about Laurel in her first Environmental Science: Nano blog on rare earth elements.

*Access is free through a registered RSC account – click here to register

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Nanoparticle studies leave the lab

Scientists have gone beyond laboratory based experiments and have used a mesocosm to accurately study the fate of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in wetland ecosystems, showing that SWNTs accumulate and persist in aquatic sediments.

Lee Ferguson and his team constructed a wetland mesocosm to examine the fate of carbon nanotubes in the aquatic environment © Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University, US

Single walled carbon nanotubes are an intriguing class of nanoparticle, and their unique properties have led to their use in a wide variety of applications, ranging from microelectronics to energy storage and even drug delivery. However, the impact of SWNTs on the environment is not fully understood. As the use of SWNTs in industry increases, environmental contamination due to spills of SWNT-containing waste or weathering of SWNT-containing products becomes ever more likely, and so the importance of studies focusing on the fate of SWNTs in the environment is growing.

To read the full article, please visit Chemistry World.

Download the full article for free*:

Fate of single walled carbon nanotubes in wetland ecosystems
Ariette Schierz, Benjamin Espinasse, Mark R. Wiesner, Joseph H. Bisesi, Tara Sabo-Attwood and P. Lee Ferguson
DOI: 10.1039/C4EN00063C, Paper

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Inhalation toxicity of carbon nanotubes

You may have heard of a material called asbestos. Asbestos was used as a construction material in the 19th and 20th centuries until it became the pivot of a widely-spread health concern in the 1980s and 1990s. The fibers’ long aspect ratio and crystalline makeup can cause serious respiratory illnesses, including lung cancer. This health hazard drove a ban on asbestos products.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) also have a high aspect ratio—they are very long and thin, and their atoms are also very neatly arranged in a crystal structure. So it is fair to assume that, if inhaled, CNTs may deposit on the respiratory system and cause a health risk similar to that of asbestos.

Currently there are multiple research efforts aiming at understanding the potential inhalation toxicity of CNTs. One complicated issue of this type of research is being able to discern the toxic effect caused by the CNT and the metal catalysts that are usually present. These metal catalysis are used to help synthesize CNTs and left at the tips of the tubes. The recently published work of Cerasela Zoica Dinu and colleagues examines the toxicity of CNTs that had been stripped clean of their metal catalysts.

Another very complicating factor of examining the inhalation toxicity to nanomaterials in general—but especially fibers—is  exposing lung cell cultures to nanomaterials in the same way that our lung cells would be exposed to these very nanomaterials, in air. While this work didn’t use the air route to expose the lung cells to CNTs, they were able to find interesting results. Their research takes us one step closer to understanding how CNTs interact with human cells, cause changes in multiple cellular processes to result in various degrees of toxicity.

To access the full article, download a copy for free* by clicking the link below.

Towards Elucidating the Effects of Purified MWCNTs on Human Lung Epithelial cells
DOI: 10.1039/C4EN00102H
Chenbo Dong et al.

Liked this blog? Find out more about Marina in her first Environmental Science Nano blog on carbon nanotubes.

* Access is free through a registered RSC account – click here to register

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Modelling in Environmental Nanotechnology

Modelling in Environmental Nanotechnology – an Environmental Science:Nano themed issue!


We invite you to contribute your exciting research to our special issue on Modelling in Environmental Nanotechnology.

Guest Edited by Mohammed Baalousha, Jamie Lead, Panos G. Georgopoulos and Dave Spurgeon, this themed issue will include a set of papers presenting state-of-the-art models for the fate, behavior, exposure, uptake and toxicity of nanomaterials in the environment and in organisms. This will include a wide range of model types for environmental and biological processes affecting nanomaterial behavior and effects. Review papers on the state of the science for particular model subsets, e.g. computational toxicology or bio-uptake modelling are also desired.

For more information on the scope of Environmental Science: Nano, our article types and author guidelines, please visit our website or email us esnano-rsc@rsc.org. Please note that all submitted manuscripts will be subject to peer review in accordance to the journals high quality standards.

Submission Deadline: 15th March 2015

We hope to receive a manuscript from you or your group soon.
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A call for papers from the 2014 ICEENN Conference

Did you attend the 2014 ICEENN Conference?

The 9th International Conference on the Environmental Effects of Nanoparticles and Nanomaterials (Nano2014) was held September 7th – 11th 2014, bringing together researchers, regulators, and industry to discuss the potential hazards and risks of current and future applications in the key sector of nanotechnology, along with mechanisms to bring about risk reduction while maintaining economic and social benefits.

The 9th International Conference on the Environmental Effects of Nanoparticles and Nanomaterials

As one of the official Publishers for the conference, Environmental Science: Nano is delighted to announce an exciting web collection that will gather together review articles, original research papers and communications covering topics discussed at the conference. We welcome submissions from key research areas such as:
  • Physical and chemical properties of nanoparticles as related to the environment and health
  • Ageing and effects of fate and behaviour
  • Toxicology and ecotoxicology
  • Social and regulatory sciences
  • Innovation and applications of nanotechnology to environmental and health issues

For more information on the scope of Environmental Science: Nano, our article types and author guidelines, please visit our website or email us esnano-rsc@rsc.org. Please note that all submitted manuscripts will be subject to peer review in accordance to the journals high quality standards.

Submission Deadline: 18th December 2014

We hope to receive a manuscript from you or your group soon.
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Rare earth elements trace nanoparticles through the environment

Nanotechnology may be a relatively new field of research, but nanosized materials have been present naturally in our environment since long before scientists started engineering them in the lab. As synthetic nanoparticles find their way into a greater variety of consumer items, however, public concern about their potential health effects has increased. Researchers trying to monitor the spread of engineered nanomaterials now face a challenge: how to distinguish their creations from the background nanomaterials already present in the environment.

A new paper recently published in Environmental Science: Nano, addresses this concern by using rare earth elements (REEs) to label synthetic nanoparticles and trace their path through the environment.

So-called REEs are actually fairly abundant in the earth’s crust, but are typically widely dispersed and are largely absent from background nanomaterials. In this paper, researchers at the University of Zaragoza, Spain, tagged titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles with two different REEs: lanthanum (La) and cerium (Ce). REEs were added to the nanoparticles during the synthesis stage so that they would be integrated into the particles’ structure. The incorporation of REEs induced a slight color shift, but did not cause significant structural changes—the labeled nanoparticles looked and behaved much like the non-labeled ones, though small differences in surface area and particle sized were observed at higher concentrations of REEs. However, because REEs are present in in the background in such low concentrations, the labeling technique is very sensitive—only a small amount of the element must be added in order for a signal to be picked up.

Then, the researchers tested whether their labeled nanoparticles were detectable in the environment. To simulate the type of contamination that might result from basic handling, they poured the nanoparticles between two beakers, a common laboratory procedure that has the potential to release particles into the air and deposit them onto the surrounding work surface.

They analyzed their work surface by systematically wiping the testing area and dissolving the wipe along with any particulate matter that it had picked up. Using optical spectrometry, they were able to quantify the amount of nanoparticle

s found near their beakers. The simple transfer procedure had spread nanoparticles across their work surface—a hint that failing to clean up the workspace between experiments could confound future results through cross-contamination!

Although this study found that even simple laboratory techniques can introduce nanoparticle contamination into the environment, it did not assess the potential health effects of these particles. Rather, the labeling technique described here provides an easy and sensitive method to trace engineered nanomaterials in the environment that will facilitate future studies attempting to answer this question.

To access the full article, download a copy for free* by clicking the link below.

Identification of TiO2 nanoparticles using La and Ce as labels: application to the evaluation of surface contamination during the handling of nanosized matter.
DOI: 10.1039/c4en00060a
V. Gomez et al

About the webwriter

Laurel Hamers is a recent graduate of Williams College and an aspiring science journalist. She has written for the Marine Biological Laboratory, Inside Science News Service, and the Materials Research Society. You can find her on her blog (sciencescope.wordpress.com) or on Twitter (@arboreal_laurel.)

* Access is free through a registered RSC account – click here to register

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