Nanomaterials: biological effects and some aspects of applications in ecology and agriculture

Nanosized materials have shown a relevant potential for practical application in a broad number of research fields, in industrial production and in everyday life. However, these substances acquire new properties and therefore may be biologically very active. This raise questions their potential toxic effects on living organisms. In some cases the nanosized materials or nano-composites possess distinct positive properties in enhancing the adaptation of plants in unfavorable conditions and in decreasing the negative effect of some chemical substances. The information about the positive and negative effects of nano-materials as well as the data concerned to the innovative approaches used by authors for the rapid assessment of the total toxicity with the exploitation of bacteria, Daphnia and plants are given. In last case a special attention is paid to the control of natural bioluminescence and chemoluminescence of living medium of organisms, the energy of the seed germination and the efficiency of the photosynthetic apparatus in growing plants by the estimation of chlorophyll fluorescence by the special "Floratest" biosensor. Three specific clases of nano-materials are analysed: a) nano-particles ZnO, Ag2O, FeOx, TiO2 and others, b) colloidal suspension of the same compounds, and c) nanostructured layered clay materials (acid saponites and Nb-containing saponite clays). The next features are analyzed: the biocidal activity (for nanoparticles), the improvement of the nutrition of plants on calcareous soils (for colloidal structures), the activity and performances as heterogeneous catalysts (for Nb-containing saponites, as selective oxidation catalysts for toxic organosulfur compounds into non-noxious products). The chemical and physical characterization of the nanosized materials described here was studied by different spectrophotometric and microscopic techniques, including AFM and SEM.