Nanomaterials exhibit unique physical and chemical properties and, hence, they have received much attention from scientists and researchers in different areas of environmental sciences, specifically in bioremediation. Bioremediation provides a good clean-up strategy for some types of waste, but as it is expected, it will not be useful for all. For example, bioremediation may not provide a feasible strategy at sites with high concentrations of chemicals that are toxic to most microorganisms. These include heavy metals and salt. Further, the advancement in science and technology has increased standard of living which directly or indirectly contributes to the increase in waste and toxic material. Therefore, the remediation of contaminants by use of existing technology is not effective and efficient in cleaning up the environment. Hence, nanomaterials may be applied for bioremediation, which will not only have less toxic effect on microorganisms, but will also improve the microbial activity of the specific waste and toxic material which will reduce the overall time consumption as well as reduce the overall cost. In this paper we have briefly summarized the major types of nanomaterials that have been used so far in bioremediation of waste and toxic materials. 1. Introduction There are various ecofriendly applications of nanomaterials (NMs) as far as environmental science is concerned, such as materials that provide clean water from polluted water sources in both large scale and portable applications and one that detects and cleans up environmental contaminants (waste and toxic material), that is, remediation [1, 2]. “Remediate” means to solve the problem and “bioremediation” means the process by which various biological agents, such as bacteria, fungi, protists, or their enzyme are used to degrade the environmental contaminants into less toxic forms [3]. The important benefit of bioremediation over conventional treatments is economical, high competence, minimization of chemical and biological sludge, selectivity to specific metals, no supplementary nutrient requirements, regeneration of biosorbent, and the possibility of metal recovery [4]. When bioremediation occurs on its own, then it is known as natural attenuation or intrinsic bioremediation and when it is incited to occur with the addition of fertilizers for the enhancement of bioavailability within the medium, then it is known as biostimulated bioremediation. Most common bioremediation technologies include bioventing, bioleaching, bioreactor, bioaugmentation, composting, biostimulation, land farming,
References
[1]
B. Schrick, B. W. Hydutsky, J. L. Blough, and T. E. Mallouk, “Delivery vehicles for zerovalent metal nanoparticles in soil and groundwater,” Chemistry of Materials, vol. 16, no. 11, pp. 2187–2193, 2004.
[2]
M. Liu, Z. Wang, S. Zong et al., “SERS detection and removal of mercury(II)/silver(I) using oligonucleotide-functionalized core/shell magnetic silica sphere@Au nanoparticles,” ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, vol. 6, no. 10, pp. 7371–7379, 2014.
[3]
P. van Dillewijn, A. Caballero, J. A. Paz, M. M. González-Pérez, J. M. Oliva, and J. L. Ramos, “Bioremediation of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene under field conditions,” Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 1378–1383, 2007.
[4]
D. Kratochvil and B. Volesky, “Advances in the biosorption of heavy metals,” Trends in Biotechnology, vol. 16, no. 7, pp. 291–300, 1998.
[5]
Y. Li and B. Li, “Study on fungi-bacteria consortium bioremediation of petroleum contaminated mangrove sediments amended with mixed biosurfactants,” Advanced Materials Research, vol. 183-185, pp. 1163–1167, 2011.
[6]
G. Prokop, M. Schamann, and I. Edelgaard, Management of Contaminated Sites in Western Europe, European Environment Agency, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2000.
[7]
I. Das and S. A. Ansari, “Nanomaterials in science and technology,” Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, vol. 68, no. 8, pp. 657–667, 2009.
[8]
J. T. Nurmi, P. G. Tratnyek, V. Sarathy et al., “Characterization and properties of metallic iron nanoparticles: spectroscopy, electrochemistry, and kinetics,” Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 39, no. 5, pp. 1221–1230, 2005.
[9]
X. Quan, S. Yang, X. Ruan, and H. Zhao, “Preparation of titania nanotubes and their environmental applications as electrode,” Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 39, no. 10, pp. 3770–3775, 2005.
[10]
W. de Windt, P. Aelterman, and W. Verstraete, “Bioreductive deposition of palladium (0) nanoparticles on Shewanella oneidensis with catalytic activity towards reductive dechlorination of polychlorinated biphenyls,” Environmental Microbiology, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 314–325, 2005.
[11]
G. Shan, J. Xing, H. Zhang, and H. Liu, “Biodesulfurization of dibenzothiophene by microbial cells coated with magnetite nanoparticles,” Applied and Environmental Microbiology, vol. 71, no. 8, pp. 4497–4502, 2005.
[12]
S. R. Kanel, B. Manning, L. Charlet, and H. Choi, “Removal of arsenic(III) from groundwater by nanoscale zero-valent iron,” Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 39, no. 5, pp. 1291–1298, 2005.
[13]
S. R. Kanel, J.-M. Greneche, and H. Choi, “Arsenic(V) removal from groundwater using nano scale zero-valent iron as a colloidal reactive barrier material,” Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 2045–2050, 2006.
[14]
S. M. Ponder, J. G. Darab, and T. E. Mallouk, “Remediation of Cr(VI) and Pb(II) aqueous solutions using supported, nanoscale zero-valent iron,” Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 34, no. 12, pp. 2564–2569, 2000.
[15]
B. Schrick, B. W. Hydutsky, J. L. Blough, and T. E. Mallouk, “Delivery vehicles for zerovalent metal nanoparticles in soil and groundwater,” Chemistry of Materials, vol. 16, no. 11, pp. 2187–2193, 2004.
[16]
C.-B. Wang and W.-X. Zhang, “Synthesizing nanoscale iron particles for rapid and complete dechlorination of TCE and PCBs,” Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 31, no. 7, pp. 2154–2156, 1997.
[17]
B. Schrick, J. L. Blough, A. D. Jones, and T. E. Mallouk, “Hydrodechlorination of trichloroethylene to hydrocarbons using bimetallic nickel-iron nanoparticles,” Chemistry of Materials, vol. 14, no. 12, pp. 5140–5147, 2002.
[18]
Y.-H. Kim and E. R. Carraway, “Dechlorination of pentachlorophenol by zero valent iron and modified zero valent irons,” Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 34, no. 10, pp. 2014–2017, 2000.
[19]
G. D. Sayles, G. You, M. Wang, and M. J. Kupferle, “DDT, DDD, and DDE dechlorination by zero-valent iron,” Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 31, no. 12, pp. 3448–3454, 1997.
[20]
E. Buhleier, W. Wehner, and F. V？gtle, “‘Cascade’- and “nonskid-chain-like” syntheses of molecular cavity topologies,” Synthesis, vol. 2, pp. 155–158, 1978.
[21]
D. A. Tomalia, H. Baker, J. Dewald et al., “A new class of polymers: starburst-dendritic macromolecules,” Polymer Journal, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 117–132, 1984.
[22]
G. R. Newkome, Z.-Q. Yao, G. R. Baker, and V. K. Gupta, “Cascade molecules: a new approach to micelles. A [27]-arborol,” Journal of Organic Chemistry, vol. 50, no. 11, pp. 2003–2004, 1985.
[23]
S. B. Undre, M. Singh, and R. K. Kale, “Interaction behaviour of trimesoyl chloride derived 1st tier dendrimers determined with structural and physicochemical properties required for drug designing,” Journal of Molecular Liquids, vol. 182, pp. 106–120, 2013.
[24]
S. B. Undre, M. Singh, R. K. Kale, and M. Rizwan, “Silibinin binding and release activities moderated by interstices of trimesoyl, tridimethyl, and tridiethyl malonate first-tier dendrimers,” Journal of Applied Polymer Science, vol. 130, pp. 3537–3554, 2013.
[25]
R. Guo, X. Guo, D. Yu, and J. Hu, “Application research in water treatment of PAMAM dendrimer,” Chemical Industry and Engineering Progress, vol. 31, pp. 671–675, 2012.
[26]
M. S. Mauter and M. Elimelech, “Environmental applications of carbon-based nanomaterials,” Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 42, no. 16, pp. 5843–5859, 2008.
[27]
B. Bina, H. Pourzamani, A. Rashidi, and M. M. Amin, “Ethylbenzene removal by carbon nanotubes from aqueous solution,” Journal of Environmental and Public Health, vol. 2012, Article ID 817187, 8 pages, 2012.
[28]
Y. Li, F. Liu, B. Xia et al., “Removal of copper from aqueous solution by carbon nanotube/calcium alginate composites,” Journal of Hazardous Materials, vol. 177, no. 1–3, pp. 876–880, 2010.
[29]
M. I. Kandah and J.-L. Meunier, “Removal of nickel ions from water by multi-walled carbon nanotubes,” Journal of Hazardous Materials, vol. 146, no. 1-2, pp. 283–288, 2007.
[30]
J.-L. Gong, B. Wang, G.-M. Zeng et al., “Removal of cationic dyes from aqueous solution using magnetic multi-wall carbon nanotube nanocomposite as adsorbent,” Journal of Hazardous Materials, vol. 164, no. 2-3, pp. 1517–1522, 2009.
[31]
Y. Qiang, A. Sharma, A. Paszczynski, and D. Meyer, “Conjugates of magnetic nanoparticle-enzyme for bioremediation,” in Proceedings of the 2007 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show, vol. 4, pp. 656–659, May 2007.
[32]
W. Tungittiplakorn, C. Cohen, and L. W. Lion, “Engineered polymeric nanoparticles for bioremediation of hydrophobic contaminants,” Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 39, no. 5, pp. 1354–1358, 2005.
[33]
W. Tungittiplakorn, L. W. Lion, C. Cohen, and J.-Y. Kim, “Engineered polymeric nanoparticles for soil remediation,” Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 38, no. 5, pp. 1605–1610, 2004.
[34]
J. R. Bargar, R. Bernier-Latmani, D. E. Giammar, and B. M. Tebo, “Biogenic uraninite nanoparticles and their importance for uranium remediation,” Elements, vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 407–412, 2008.
[35]
F. Mohsenzadeh and A. Chehregani Rad, “Bioremediation of heavy metal pollution by nano-particles of noaea mucronata,” International Journal of Bioscience, Biochemistry and Bioinformatics, vol. 2, pp. 85–89, 2012.
