A review on mobility of engineered carbon-based nanoparticles in porous media Available to Purchase

Engineered nanoparticles have generated significant public and scientific excitement due to their unique physical, chemical and electrical properties, which have led to their application in a wide variety of industries. Among all these, carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) are widely manufactured nanoparticles which are utilised in a significant quantity of consumer products, such as reinforced concrete, plastics, sporting goods, electronics and biomedical applications. Due to their fast-track use, CNPs constitute a potential risk if they are released to soil and groundwater systems. Toxic effects of CNPs have been observed on the human body as well as the environment; therefore, their release and distribution into the environment has become an important topic of concern. Hence, it is essential to improve the current understanding of CNP transportation and retention into porous media. Several studies have investigated CNP mobility in packed sand columns under water-saturated conditions. This study reviews a significant number of studies which have found that CNP mobility is sensitive to a diversity of experimental conditions, including physical conditions (collector grain size, pore water velocity) and solution chemistry (ionic strength, pH). Further work should be done to understand the pattern of CNP mobility into subsurface environments considering realistic scenarios at field scale.