Nanotechnology-Based Sensors for Detection of Environmental Pollution discusses the use of nanotechnology to generate sensors capable of performing efficient detection of different types of environmental pollutants. Sections explore environmental pollution as a threat to life on Earth, the main contaminants (inorganic, organic or pathogens), and the risk they represent to living beings. Others are dedicated to nanotechnology, allowing pollutants’ detection, a brief history of nanotechnology-based sensors, different types of nanotechnology-based sensor (optical, electrochemical, and magnetic), nanotechnology-based sensors’ design and fabrication, nano biosensors, and more.Additional sections focus on important specific pollutants (pesticides, heavy metal, dyes, toxic gas, pharmaceutical waste, petroleum hydrocarbons, and pathogenic microbes) and their detection by nanotechnology-based sensors and important nanomaterials in nanotechnology-based sensors, exploring carbon-based and non-carbon-based material in nanoscale (graphene, carbon nanotubes, quantum dots, magnetic nanomaterials, non-magnetic nanoparticles) and also point-of-care sensors and functionalization to generate optimized nanotechnology-based sensors to pollutants’ detection.
Advances in Aerogel Composites for Environmental Remediation presents both contextual information aboutaerogels and details about their application in environmental remediation. A wide variety of aerogels are discussed, rangingfrom common to advanced and from natural to synthetic. By exploring ongoing research and developments in the environmentalremediation technologies using aerogel and its composites, this book addresses common day-to-day environmental problemsand presents solutions to the use of aerogel materials. The chapters discuss fabrication of various aerogel composites, alongwith their design and applications toward different environmental remediation technologies. Additionally, the properties andadvantages of aerogels are compared and contrasted to those of traditional materials. Given the consistent increase in environmental pollution, there is an urgent need to explore new materials for advances in remediationtechnology. Advances in Aerogel Composites for Environmental Remediation brings researchers and practitionersin the fields of environmental remediation, environmental science, and engineering to the forefront of remediation technologieswith a thorough breakdown of the benefits of and techniques relevant to aerogel composites.
Heavy Metals in the Environment: Impact, Assessment, and Remediation synthesizes both fundamental concepts of heavy metal pollutants and state-of-the-art techniques and technologies for assessment and remediation. The book discusses the sources, origin and health risk assessment of heavy metals as well as the application of GIS, remote sensing and multivariate techniques in the assessment of heavy metals. The various contamination indices like contamination factor, geoaccumulation index, enrichment factor, and pollution index ecological risk index are also included to provide further context on the state of heavy metals in the environment. Covering a variety of approaches, techniques, and scenarios, this book is a key resource for environmental scientists and policymakers working to address environmental pollutants.
Advances in Agronomy continues to be recognized as a leading reference and a first-rate source for the latest research in agronomy. As always, the subjects covered are varied and exemplary of the myriad of subject matter dealt with by this long-running serial
The book presents a detailed assessment of the health science of lead and the human health risk assessment models for lead’s human health impacts, followed by an account of various regulatory efforts in the United States and elsewhere to eliminate or reduce human toxic exposures to lead. The science of lead as presented here covers releases of lead into the environment, lead’s movement through the environment to reach humans who are then exposed, and the spectrum of toxic effects, particularly low-level toxic effects, on the developing central nervous system of the very young child. The section on human health risk assessment deals with quantifying not only the dose-response relationships that underlie toxic responses to lead in sensitive populations but also with the likelihood of toxic responses vis-à -vis environmental lead at some level of exposure. This section includes a treatment of computer models of lead exposure, particularly those that use lead in whole blood as a key measure. Various models convert lead intake via various body compartments into measures of body lead burden. Such measures are then directly related to severity of injury. The final section of the book deals with past and present regulatory efforts to control lead releases into the human environment. Current control efforts present a mixed picture. The most problematic issue is the continued presence of lead paint in older housing and lead in soils of urban and mining industry communities.
Excessive levels of heavy metals can be introduced into the environment, for example, by industrial waste or fertilizers. Soil represents a major sink for heavy metals ions, which can then enter the food chain via plants or leaching into groundwater. In Heavy Metal Ions in the Environment, the author looks at where heavy metals ions come from, how they interact with the environment and how they can be removed from the environment – by a process known as remediation. This book serves as a valuable addition to an increasingly important field of study, which is, at present, served by a limited number of archival texts.
The execution of detailed studies on the fate and levels of hazardous elements in the environment, foodstuffs and in human beings has become a major task in environmental research and especially in analytical chemistry. This has led to a demand to develop new methodology and optimize that already in use. The book offers the reader a general introduction to the problem areas that are currently being tackled, followed by chapters on sampling and sample preservation, strategies and applications of the archiving of selected representative specimens for long-term storage in environmental specimen banks. This is supplemented by the example of wine as a preserved - frequently, already historical - specimen which clearly reflects technological changes over time. The following chapters review sample treatment, present an overview on the most frequently and successfully applied trace analytical methods for metals and metal compounds, and introduce the increasingly important methods for identifying and quantifying metal species in sediments and soils (speciation). The chapters in the second part of the book provide data on analytical methods for determining the levels of toxicologically, ecotoxicologically and ecologically important elements in environmental and biological materials, including information on the separation and quantification of chemical and organomatallic species. The elements treated are aluminium, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, lead, mercury, nickel, selenium and thallium. The final chapter treats quality assurance and the importance of the continuous use of appropriate reference materials to avoid erroneous results.