| (Nanowerk News) Cleaning up after a major oil spill is a long, expensive process, and the damage to a coastal region’s ecosystem can be significant. This is especially true for the world’s Arctic region, where newly opened sea lanes will expose remote shorelines to increased risks due to an anticipated rise in sea traffic. | |
| Current mitigation techniques even in heavily populated regions face serious limitations, including low oil absorption capacity, potential toxicity to marine life and a slow remediation process. | |
| However, advances in nanotechnology may provide solutions that are more effective, safer and work much faster than current methods. That’s according to a new paper in Environmental Science: Nano (“Nanotechnology for oil spill response and cleanup in coastal regions”) by a Concordia-led team of researchers. | |
| “Using nanomaterials as a response method has emerged as a promising sustainable approach,” says lead author Huifang Bi, a PhD candidate in the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science. | |
| “This paper synthesizes, reviews and analyzes between 40 and 50 studies on the subject to give us a big-picture look of the status of nanotechnologies in coastal oil spill response. At the same time, we are also presenting our own suggestions and identifying research gaps between using nanomaterials in the lab and how they can be used in real-world applications.” | |
| She adds that nanomaterials are being widely studied to combat marine oil spills, but she is focusing specifically on coastline remediation. She estimates that more than 90 per cent of the papers she reviewed were exclusively lab-based and not yet available for field use. | |
Encouraging results need field testing |
|
| The unique properties found in nanomaterials can help mitigation across different remediation efforts. These include surface washing agents, dispersants, sorbents and bioremediation. Each method has its own strengths and drawbacks that can be improved with the use of nanomaterials. | |
| For instance, replacing synthetic surfactants and organic solvents with bio-based nanomaterials has shown to be both highly effective at removing oil and to produce less toxic substances that can harm coastal biotas. | |
| Nanomaterials can also be used in dispersants. Clay-based nanomaterials can stabilize oil particles in an emulsion, resulting in a larger area for oil-eating bacteria to grow and accelerating oil disappearance. In sorbents like aerogels or foams, nanomaterials can improve the removal of oil from water by absorption, adsorption or a combination thanks to large surface areas and a high number of sorption sites. | |
| Finally, they can also be used to accelerate bioremediation, a technique that uses microorganisms to break down harmful pollutants like oil into less harmful or harmless substances. | |
| “While these lab-based results are encouraging, we need to exercise caution,” warns Bi, winner of a 2023 Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. “We should prioritize the use of sustainable and eco-friendly nanomaterials to minimize environmental risks and ensure the responsible application of nanotechnology in coastal oil spill response. We also need to scale up testing to measure this efficacy in field tests.” | |
| According to Bi’s thesis supervisor Chunjiang An, an associate professor in the same department, the emergence of nanomaterials as oil spill remediation tools is coming at a critical time. | |
| “We are facing many new challenges, with threats of oil spills now affecting both traditional and new regions, including the Arctic,” he says. “We need to work with governments and the private sector to ensure that they are aware of these technologies and can further include them in their future remediation guidelines.” |
| Source: By Patrick Lejtenyi, Concordia University (Note: Content may be edited for style and length) |
News
Scientists Flip a Gut Virus “Kill Switch” – Expose a Hidden Threat in Antibiotic Treatment
Scientists have long known that bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, live in our gut, but exactly what they do has remained elusive. Researchers developed a clever mouse model that can temporarily eliminate these phages [...]
Enhanced Antibacterial Polylactic Acid-Curcumin Nanofibers for Wound Dressing
Background Wound healing is a complex physiological process that can be compromised by infection and impaired tissue regeneration. Conventional dressings, typically made from natural fibers such as cotton or linen, offer limited functionality. Nanofiber [...]
Global Nanomaterial Regulation: A Country-by-Country Comparison
Nanomaterials are materials with at least one dimension smaller than 100 nanometres (about 100,000 times thinner than a human hair). Because of their tiny size, they have unique properties that can be useful in [...]
Pandemic Potential: Scientists Discover 3 Hotspots of Deadly Emerging Disease in the US
Virginia Tech researchers discovered six new rodent carriers of hantavirus and identified U.S. hotspots, highlighting the virus’s adaptability and the impact of climate and ecology on its spread. Hantavirus recently drew public attention following reports [...]
Studies detail high rates of long COVID among healthcare, dental workers
Researchers have estimated approximately 8% of Americas have ever experienced long COVID, or lasting symptoms, following an acute COVID-19 infection. Now two recent international studies suggest that the percentage is much higher among healthcare workers [...]
Melting Arctic Ice May Unleash Ancient Deadly Diseases, Scientists Warn
Melting Arctic ice increases human and animal interactions, raising the risk of infectious disease spread. Researchers urge early intervention and surveillance. Climate change is opening new pathways for the spread of infectious diseases such [...]
Scientists May Have Found a Secret Weapon To Stop Pancreatic Cancer Before It Starts
Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have found that blocking the FGFR2 and EGFR genes can stop early-stage pancreatic cancer from progressing, offering a promising path toward prevention. Pancreatic cancer is expected to become [...]
Breakthrough Drug Restores Vision: Researchers Successfully Reverse Retinal Damage
Blocking the PROX1 protein allowed KAIST researchers to regenerate damaged retinas and restore vision in mice. Vision is one of the most important human senses, yet more than 300 million people around the world are at [...]
Differentiating cancerous and healthy cells through motion analysis
Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have found that the motion of unlabeled cells can be used to tell whether they are cancerous or healthy. They observed malignant fibrosarcoma [...]
This Tiny Cellular Gate Could Be the Key to Curing Cancer – And Regrowing Hair
After more than five decades of mystery, scientists have finally unveiled the detailed structure and function of a long-theorized molecular machine in our mitochondria — the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier. This microscopic gatekeeper controls how [...]
Unlocking Vision’s Secrets: Researchers Reveal 3D Structure of Key Eye Protein
Researchers have uncovered the 3D structure of RBP3, a key protein in vision, revealing how it transports retinoids and fatty acids and how its dysfunction may lead to retinal diseases. Proteins play a critical [...]
5 Key Facts About Nanoplastics and How They Affect the Human Body
Nanoplastics are typically defined as plastic particles smaller than 1000 nanometers. These particles are increasingly being detected in human tissues: they can bypass biological barriers, accumulate in organs, and may influence health in ways [...]
Measles Is Back: Doctors Warn of Dangerous Surge Across the U.S.
Parents are encouraged to contact their pediatrician if their child has been exposed to measles or is showing symptoms. Pediatric infectious disease experts are emphasizing the critical importance of measles vaccination, as the highly [...]
AI at the Speed of Light: How Silicon Photonics Are Reinventing Hardware
A cutting-edge AI acceleration platform powered by light rather than electricity could revolutionize how AI is trained and deployed. Using photonic integrated circuits made from advanced III-V semiconductors, researchers have developed a system that vastly [...]
A Grain of Brain, 523 Million Synapses, Most Complicated Neuroscience Experiment Ever Attempted
A team of over 150 scientists has achieved what once seemed impossible: a complete wiring and activity map of a tiny section of a mammalian brain. This feat, part of the MICrONS Project, rivals [...]
The Secret “Radar” Bacteria Use To Outsmart Their Enemies
A chemical radar allows bacteria to sense and eliminate predators. Investigating how microorganisms communicate deepens our understanding of the complex ecological interactions that shape our environment is an area of key focus for the [...]
