Guest Edited Special Issue on "Nanomaterials and the Environment"

Developments in nanoscience have brought industrial benefits as well as environmental concerns. Nanomaterials have been considered a potential environmental emerging contaminant, and their origin can be natural, incidental, or from manufacturing processes. I as a "Lead Guest Editor", along with my collaborators acting as Guest Co-Editors from the UK, Australia and India, have recently completed an special issue titled as "Nanomaterials and the Environment" for the "Journal of Nanomaterials".

We invited researchers to contribute original research articles as well as review articles related to characterisation, emissions, transformation, dispersion, fate, and effects of nanomaterials in different environmental compartments (air, water, and soil). Also were invited articles dealing with the environmental and health impacts, of nanomaterials and particulate matter in general, and the implications for policy and regulations for both the indoor and outdoor environments.

The issue is now available online and the articles published as a part of this special issue can be freely accessed by clicking here.

Vegetation, nanoparticles and related exposure

Trees play both negative and positive role in terms of pollution exposure to city dwellers. When these are planted along the roadsides where there are densely packed buildings around them, they trap the pollution by restricting the clearing of wind flow and pollution from vehicles. However, when these are put along the roadsides in non-built environment such as open busy roadsides they can do a great job to restrict the pollution to reach to footpath dwellers. One of our recent research articles, published recently in Atmospheric Environment, experimentally demonstrate their effectiveness and suggest a way forward for urban planners to limit pollution exposure of people living in urban areas. The full article titled as "The influence of roadside vegetation barriers on airborne nanoparticles and pedestrians exposure under varying wind conditions" can be accessed through the following link (online version) or its pre-print freely available version by clicking here.

Ultrafine Particles in Cities

Ultrafine particles (UFPs; diameter less than 100 nm) are ubiquitous in urban air, and an acknowledged risk to human health. Globally, the major source for urban outdoor UFP concentrations is motor traffic. On-going trends towards urbanisation and expansion of road traffic are anticipated to further increase population exposure to UFPs. Numerous experimental studies have characterised UFPs in individual cities,....read full article by clicking here or full text here.