Themed collection Nanoplastics in the Environment

This review explores techniques used to identify micro- and nanoplastics, including FT-IR, Raman, fluorescence and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopies, electroanalytical techniques, microfluidic systems, and advanced mass spectrometry methods.

Fragmentation processes of BPs and the environment risks posed by BP intermediate products in soil.

Development of UV-weathered micro- and nanoplastic controls for overcoming challenges associated with accurate chemical identification.

The widespread presence of plastic contamination in the environment presents a severe threat to human and animal health.

The SAbyNA platform supports value chain actors in developing safe-by-design nano-enabled products early in their development phases. The potential of digital guidance is exemplified in a case study on carbon nanotube-based 3D-printed products.

Plastics are persistent in the environment, which suggests that they may induce adverse effects due to their progressive accumulation over time.

Impact of micro(nano)plastics on aquatic microorganisms: size-dependent disruption of community dynamics and maturation processes.

Polystyrene nanoplastics (PS-NPs) promoted the accumulation of Cd in duckweed roots, while alleviating the toxicity of Cd in the fronds.

Phthalates (PTs) pose a significant threat to both environmental and human health due to their persistent presence in natural waters.

This study uncovers how co-exposure to PSNPs-NH₂ and arsenic intensifies cyanobacterial stress, disrupts metabolism, and promotes toxin release, revealing new risks to aquatic stability and pollutant behavior.

Polystyrene nanoplastics altered the surface properties of cyanobacteria without affecting their growth or structure, highlighting their remarkable resilience and adaptive strategies in response to environmental challenges.

This study investigated the aggregation of polystyrene (PS) nanoplastics (NPs) by kinetic experiments, considering single, simultaneous, and sequential addition of silica (SiO₂) nanoparticles and metal cations.

Above other physical and chemical features, the surface charge of PS-NPs is crucial for their interaction with cells and biological effects in C. elegans.

Macrophages (in green) treated with polyethylene terephthalate nanoparticles (in red) internalize them, which induces various cellular and immune responses.

After exposure at the parental generation (P0-G), nanoplastics can induce transgenerational toxicity.

Our approach lowers the size of nanosized plastics detectable via micro-Raman spectroscopy, exploiting the resonance Raman signal from blue-pigmented, highly abundant microplastics.

In response to the limited environmentally relevant biobased nanoplastic models, the formation of poly(lactic acid) nanoplastics with comparable properties to the ones deriving from the environmental ageing of poly(lactic acid) debris, is presented.

The binding mechanism of proteins with micro/nanoplastics are examined by biophysical/chemical indicators, and molecular docking. In addition, cytotoxicity of protein after micro/nanoplastics interaction was tested on A549 cells.

An analytical processing design is proposed to accumulate nano-plastics diluted in water-based solvents and evaluate their individual IR spectral properties.

Plant uptake of micro- and nanoplastics can lead to contamination of food with plastic particles and subsequent human consumption of plastics.

This study introduces a novel method for visualizing the uptake and accumulation of polystyrene nanoplastics in edible plants using luminous upconverted nanoparticles.