Current Analytical Chemistry - Volume 21, Issue 3, 2025

Nanoplastics (NPs) have emerged as a concerning environmental pollutant due to their ubiquitous presence and potential adverse effects on human health. This review aims to elucidate the routes of NP contamination and their associated toxic effects on various systems within the human body. The inhalation of NPs presents a significant route of exposure, where particles can deposit deep within the respiratory tract, leading to potential respiratory health complications. Similarly, ingestion of NPs through contaminated food and water sources poses a risk to gastrointestinal and urinary tract health. Additionally, dermal permeation of NPs highlights another avenue for exposure, raising concerns about skin health. The potential toxic effects of micro(nano)plastics (MNPs) on human health span across multiple physiological systems. MNPs have been implicated in respiratory ailments, gastrointestinal disturbances, cardiovascular complications, blood abnormalities, compromised immune responses, neurological impairments, and reproductive dysfunctions. Understanding these toxic effects is crucial for developing strategies to mitigate NP exposure and protect human health. This review underscores the urgent need for interdisciplinary research efforts aimed at assessing NP toxicity comprehensively and implementing measures to reduce NP contamination in the environment.

Access to clean air, a vital necessity for life, faces severe constraints globally due to industrialization and urbanization, leading to widespread air quality deterioration. To safeguard human health and the environment from detrimental effects, the essential components of proper monitoring, assessment, and management of air quality are paramount. Conventional air quality analytical techniques such as gas chromatography/ mass spectrometry, selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry, thermal desorption/ gas chromatography, and mass spectrometry are widely used for air quality analysis. These methods, however, are laborious, necessitate sample preparation, require expansive and hazardous reagents, and have a high cost of equipment and maintenance. As such, more rapid, sensitive, specific, cost-effective, portable, user-friendly, and environmentally friendly analytical tools are required for efficient air quality monitoring and control. Over the years, various techniques have emerged to address these challenges, including mobile sensors, microbial monitoring, the Internet of Things (IoT), biomonitoring, and bio- and nanosensors in both indoor and outdoor settings. This paper offers an overview of recent advancements in air quality monitoring and assessment methods. The review encompasses sample preparations for air pollutants, data analysis methodologies, and monitoring strategies. It also delves into the crucial role of microorganisms in air quality analysis. Additionally, the paper explores the applications of the Internet of Things (IoT) and biosensors in air quality monitoring and assessment, elucidating their roles in advancing these endeavors. The paper concludes by presenting insightful perspectives on the current state of air quality monitoring techniques and outlining future directions for research and development in this critical field.

In recent years, research and development efforts have been heavily focused on conductive diamond electrodes for electrochemical applications. Such initiatives may have been spurred by their broad potential window, low background current, chemical inertness, and mechanical robustness. Compared to other carbon-based materials, conducting diamond can oxidize several analytes before the breakdown of water in aqueous electrolytes. Since the evolution of oxygen and hydrogen does not obstruct the analysis, this is significant for the detection and/or identification of species in solution. As a result, conductive diamond electrodes expand the application of electrochemical detection and make it possible to use them for analytes that are incompatible with traditional electrode materials. Fabricating boron-doped diamond films via chemical vapor deposition on different substrates is of special interest. This article highlights the therapeutic and electroanalytical applications of boron-doped diamond electrodes in various aspects in addition to the synthetic strategies to obtain Boron Doped Diamond Electrodes (BDDE), the cost-effectiveness of BDD and its in-vivo compatibility that will help the analytical researchers to learn almost everything about the previous studies done on BDDE and encourage them to work more efficiently in this research field.

A new material of SiO2-(1-(bis(2-aminoethyl)amino)-3-(silyl)propane-2-ol) (SiO2-BAEASP) has been successfully synthesized as a promising SiO2-based material for the filtration and capturing UO2²⁺ ions. In this study, the chemical structure and possible uses of SiO2-BAEASP in environmental remediation are explored. Moreover, the methodologies and procedures for synthesizing and characterizing SiO2-BAEASP are also described. In addition, the experimental methodologies regarding the capturing capacity, pH, initial concentrations, and temperature dependence are determined. The FT-IR spectra of SiO2-BAEASP materials show distinct functional groups, including the disappearance of νSi–O–H stretching vibrations and the appearance of sharp νSi–O–Si vibrations. However, detection of the primary and secondary amine stretching frequencies at 3251 cm^-1 becomes difficult when it is chelated with UO2²⁺ ions due to its weak density and interference with the –OH stretching frequency. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and weight loss patterns for SiO2-BAEASP before and after capturing UO2²⁺ ions suggest the formation of coordination complexes between UO2²⁺ ions and organic functional groups, impacting the thermal properties of the material. Furthermore, the Powder X-ray Diffraction (PXRD) spectrum indicates that the atomic arrangement within the crystals of the material remains largely unchanged before or after adsorption, suggesting that the adsorption of uranyl ions is likely to occur predominantly on the material's surface, with limited impact on the bulk structure. The SEM shows an increase in surface roughness or the formation of layers of nano-spherical particles on the surface, forming clusters or agglomerations. The maximal capturing capability of UO2²⁺ ions into SiO2-BAEASP is 99% under the experimental circumstances of pH = 5 - 7, i = 50 mg L^-1, T = 55°C, dosage = 2 g L^-1, and 80 rpm. The capturing of uranyl ions follows the Langmuir isotherm model (R² ≈ 1) as a favorable process (Rl < 0.02). The capturing process has ΔG = - 8.2083 to -16.0568 kJ mol^-1, ΔH (+69.7927 kJ mol⁻¹), and ΔS (+2.616166 kJ mol^-1 K^-1), which indicates that the adsorption is energy-efficient and spontaneous. The pseudo-second-order and Weber-Morris intraparticle diffusion models (ca. R² = 1.0) suggest that the capturing mechanism follows chemisorption through three distinct stages of sorption, indicating that intraparticle diffusion primarily governs the transport of UO2²⁺ ions into the SiO2-BAEASP. The main findings confirm the ability of SiO2-BAEASP to trap UO2²⁺ ions in contaminated fluids efficiently and its importance in environmental remediation and resource recovery.