Preface

Environmental analysis has become a topic of considerable importance these days. It is not only significant to environmentalists but also to regulators, decision makers, surveillance agencies and the organizations assessing the impact of pollutants on the environment, and it has evolved as a true discipline throughout the world. In recent years, there has been a rapid union of nanotechnology and analytical sciences. This convergence, although highly interdisciplinary in nature, has been brought about by new technologies that have led to application-specific devices, for example lab-on-a chip. The high demand for advanced comprehensive understanding and awareness of more accurate and precise measurement tools for pollutants and their characterization dictate the terms and conditions for this convergence. The reduction in size from bulk to micro- and nano-scale promises high sensitivity, high speed, increased selectivity and increased device lifetime for new devices. Instruments with more sensitivity are required today to analyze ultra-trace levels of environmental pollutants, pathogens in water, and low vapor pressure energetic materials in air.

The objective of this book is to provide an overview of new developments for a variety of environmental analytical techniques. Every effort has been made to include the state-of-the-art to show improvements in environmental analytical techniques and processes due to nanomaterials in the book. Additionally, special attention is paid to those approaches that are green and reduce the cost of the analysis, process both in terms of chemicals and time consumption. In the end the legal, economical and toxicity aspects of nanomaterials are also presented in detail.

To put all of the shared knowledge into perspective, add a touch of reality to the concepts, and to cover extensive expansion of the applications of nanomaterials in the environmental analysis field, the book is divided into two volumes and each volume has subdivisions of several sections. Moreover, to maintain coherence in the flow of knowledge, these sections are patterned in a continuous manner in both volumes. As a result, sections one to four are contained in the first volume, whereas sections five to ten are provided in the second volume.

In Volume One, the first section talks about the perspective of analytical sciences in relation to nanotechnology, synthetic techniques for nanomaterials, different unique properties of nanomaterials and a detailed description of the mechanisms of adsorption on nanomaterials. The second section encompasses the recent advances in sample preparation and extraction techniques for organic and inorganic pollutants with nanomaterials. The third section is all about new developments in separation techniques with a focus on applications of nanomaterials for chromatography and membrane technology. The fourth section incorporates spectroscopic techniques using nanomaterials, especially surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), for detection of environmental pollutants.

In Volume Two, the fifth section describes new trends in environmental analysis, i.e., applications of magnetic nanomaterials, nano-sensors, composite materials and nano-bio sensors, like nanozymes. The sixth section talks about the applications of nanomaterials for water treatment and purification techniques. The effects of nanomaterials on the environment and the ecosystem in terms of their toxicity, safety regulations and economic issues are depicted in the seventh section. Section eight discusses the monitoring and analysis of nanomaterials, whereas section nine is about the future of environmental analysis in light of new developments in science and technology. In the last section, the editors provide concluding remarks about the application of nanomaterials for environmental analysis.

The selection of these sections in both volumes is based on the most recent research, teaching, the practical experience of editors and the philosophy that environmental analysis is moving towards its next generation. The contributing authors are selected from a wide cross-section around the world. The diversity of authors for each chapter and their disciplinary backgrounds reveal the interdisciplinary emphasis of this book. Thanks to the multidisciplinary nature of this book, the reader can enjoy a lot of knowledge in one place.

The anticipated audience is scientists, researchers, consultants, regulators and engineers. Moreover, graduate students will find this book to be very useful in their research and understanding of advances in environmental analysis techniques and beyond. The book is also intended to provide more experienced researchers with a condensed summary of the influence of nanotechnology on analytical techniques and excellent up-to-date references that will prove useful in their future endeavors. The editors and contributors are lead scientists and researchers in academia and industry in their subject areas. On behalf of the Royal Society of Chemistry, we are very thankful to all contributors for their special and hard work in the making of this book.