Nanomaterials in the Earth system

BACKGROUND

Natural nanomaterials have always been abundant during Earth’s formation and throughout its evolution over the past 4.54 billion years. Incidental nanomaterials, which arise as a by-product from human activity, have become unintentionally abundant since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Nanomaterials can also be engineered to have unusual, tunable properties that can be used to improve products in applications from human health to electronics, and in energy, water, and food production. Engineered nanomaterials are very much a recent phenomenon, not yet a century old, and are just a small mass fraction of the natural and incidental varieties. As with natural and incidental nanomaterials, engineered nanomaterials can have both positive and negative consequences in our environment.

Despite the ubiquity of nanomaterials on Earth, only in the past 20 years or so have their impacts on the Earth system been studied intensively. This is mostly due to a much better understanding of the distinct behavior of materials at the nanoscale and to multiple advances in analytic techniques. This progress continues to expand rapidly as it becomes clear that nanomaterials are relevant from molecular to planetary dimensions and that they operate from the shortest to the longest time scales over the entire Earth system.

ADVANCES

Nanomaterials can be defined as any organic, inorganic, or organometallic material that present chemical, physical, and/or electrical properties that change as a function of the size and shape of the material. This behavior is most often observed in the size range between 1 nm up to a few to several tens of nanometers in at least one dimension. These materials have very high proportions of surface atoms relative to interior ones. Also, they are often subject to property variation as a function of size owing to quantum confinement effects. Nanomaterial growth, dissolution or evaporation, surface reactivity, and aggregation states play key roles in their lifetime, behaviors, and local interactions in both natural and engineered environments, often with global consequences.

It is now possible to recognize and identify critical roles played by nanomaterials in vital Earth system components, including direct human impact. For example, nanomaterial surfaces may have been responsible for promoting the self-assembly of protocells in the origin of life and in the early evolution of bacterial cell walls. Also, weathering reactions on the continents produce various bioavailable iron (oxy)hydroxide natural and incidental nanomaterials, which are transported to the oceans via riverine and atmospheric pathways and which influence ocean surface primary productivity and thus the global carbon cycle. A third example involves nanomaterials in the atmosphere that travel locally, regionally, and globally. When inhaled, the smallest nanoparticles can pass through the alveolar membranes of the lungs and directly enter the bloodstream. From there, they enter vital organs, including the brain, with possible deleterious consequences.

OUTLOOK

Earth system nanoscience requires a convergent approach that combines physical, biological, and social sciences, as well as engineering and economic disciplines. This convergence will drive developments for all types of intelligent and anticipatory conceptual models assisted by new analytical techniques and computational simulations.

Ultimately, scientists must learn how to recognize key roles of natural, incidental, and engineered nanomaterials in the complex Earth system, so that this understanding can be included in models of Earth processes and Earth history, as well as in ethical considerations regarding their positive and negative effects on present and predicted future environmental and human health issues.