Environmentally Sustainable and Ecosafe Polysaccharide-Based Materials for Water Nano-Treatment: An Eco-Design Study

Abstract

Nanoremediation, which is the use of nanoparticles and nanomaterials for environmental remediation, is widely explored and proposed for preservation of ecosystems that suffer from the increase in human population, pollution, and urbanization. We herein report a critical analysis of nanotechnologies for water remediation by assessing their sustainability in terms of efficient removal of pollutants, appropriate methods for monitoring their effectiveness, and protocols for the evaluation of any potential environmental risks. Our purpose is to furnish fruitful guidelines for sustainable water management, able to promote nanoremediation also at European level. In this context, we describe new nanostructured polysaccharide-based materials obtained from renewable resources as alternative efficient and ecosafe solutions for water nano-treatment. We also provide eco-design indications to improve the sustainability of the production of these materials, based on life-cycle assessment methodology.

Suitability of a Cellulose-Based Nanomaterial for the Remediation of Heavy Metal Contaminated Freshwaters: A Case-Study Showing the Recovery of Cadmium Induced DNA Integrity Loss, Cell Proliferation Increase, Nuclear Morphology and Chromosomal Alterations on Dreissena polymorpha

“…The use of nZVI has shown great potential in the remediation of contaminated water [18], but it has also underlined its reactivity in the remediation of highly polluted areas, including toxic effects during environmental applications. Carbon nanotubes, nano-zinc and nano-titanium oxides have been tested in remediation processes [19][20][21], but conflicting results have been reported concerning their potential ecotoxicity [22]. For these reasons, sustainable nanomaterials, developed from renewable sources, arouse growing interest for their application in nano-remediation [22,23] being effective, biodegradable, and biocompatible.…”

Silver Nanoparticles for Water Pollution Monitoring and Treatments: Ecosafety Challenge and Cellulose-Based Hybrids Solution

“…To achieve environmental safety, the new strategy widely adopted in nanomedicine to design safer materials has been recognized to be successful in order to disregard those undesirable properties which can be hazardous for humans and the environment [32]. A similar concept was recently adopted in the design of ENMs for environmental application as for instance in pollution remediation (nanoremediation), in which environmental safety and efficacy towards removal of pollutants from an environmental setting will be incorporated in the material design process (eco-design) [28,32,156,157]. Removal efficacy and ecotoxicity are tested in parallel in order to obtain best adsorption performances with no risk for the exposed organisms (Figure 4).…”

“…As an example, in line with this strategy, a recent contribution in the field was made by selecting ecosafe batches of cellulose-based nanosponges (CNS) for heavy metal removal from seawater obtained by an eco-design strategy [147]. A trial-and-error-like process in which direct effects on aquatic organisms of CNS, evaluated by an ecotoxicological approach, aids the formulation of CNS in a stepwise fashion (i.e., by testing single components and synthesized materials at the final stage) along with the synthetic procedure and it has been proven to be successful in selecting the most environmental safe CNS formulation [156,158]. By reducing nanomaterial uncertainties and environmental and human risks, an eco-design strategy could support regulatory requirements, boost circular economy and act as a further driver for market development of the nanoremediation sector.…”

Life cycle assessment of emerging environmental technologies in the early stage of development: A case study on nanostructured materials

“…In the context of application of ENMs for environmental remediation, we recently proposed an original approach to overcome the toxicology and legislative issues related to the use of nanotechnology (Corsi et al., ). It consists into the use of nanomaterials not directly as single units, but after they have been assembled to construct macro‐dimensioned materials with an internal nanostructure.…”