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Nanomaterials possess superior advantages due to their special geometries, higher surface area, and unique mechanical, optical, and physicochemical properties. Their characteristics make them great contributors to the development of many technological and industrial sectors. Therefore, novel nanomaterials have an increasing interest in many research areas including biomedicine such as chronic inflammations, disease detection, drug delivery, and infections treatment. Their relevant role is, in many cases, associated with an effective catalytic application, either as a pure catalyst (acting as a nanozyme) or as a support for catalytically active materials (forming nanobiocatalysts). In this review, we analyze the construction of nanozymes and nanobiocatalyst by different existing forms of nanomaterials including carbon-based nanomaterials, metalbased nanomaterials, and polymer-based nanocomposites. Then, we examine successful examples of such nanomaterials employed in biomedical research. The role played by nanomaterials in catalytic applications is analyzed to identify possible research directions toward the development of the field and the achievement of real practicability.

PFAS are a very diverse group of anthropogenic chemicals used in various consumer and industrial products. The properties that characterize are their low degradability as well as their resistance to water, oil and heat. This results in their high persistence in the environment and bioaccumulation in different organisms, causing many adverse effects on the environment as well as in human health. Some of their effects remain unknown to this day. As there are thousands of registered PFAS, it is difficult to apply traditional technologies for an efficient removal and detection for all. This has made it difficult for wastewater treatment plants to remove or degrade PFAS before discharging the effluents into the environment. Also, monitoring these contaminants depends mostly on chromatography-based methods, which require expensive equipment and consumables, making it difficult to detect PFAS in the environment. The detection of PFAS in the environment, and the development of technologies to be implemented in tertiary treatment of wastewater treatment plants are topics of high concern. This study focuses on analyzing and discussing the mechanisms of occurrence, migration, transformation, and fate of PFAS in the environment, as well the main adverse effects in the environment and human health. The following work reviews the recent advances in the development of PFAS detection technologies (biosensors, electrochemical sensors, microfluidic devices), and removal/degradation methods (electrochemical degradation, enzymatic transformation, advanced oxidation, photocatalytic degradation). Understanding the risks to public health and identifying the routes of production, transportation, exposure to PFAS is extremely important to implement regulations for the detection and removal of PFAS in wastewater and the environment.

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