Applications of Nanotechnology for Bio-Remediation of Pesticide-Contaminated Sites

Pesticides seem to be a good resolution to meet food demand of continuously growing population of the world. They protect agricultural yields against pests or weeds. Even though for a short term this invention could be regarded as a bright idea to deal with loss of crops at the source, in a long term pesticide inevitably become environmental threat. To remove or minimize the adverse effects of pesticides' residues on the environment; physical, chemical, and biological methods (either separately or jointly) have been applied so far. However, there are some drawbacks of these methods. For example, physico-chemical treatment leads to generation of harmful byproducts and becomes environmentally harmfull approach. Although biological treatment process is environmentally friendly, it has some limitations such as low biodegradation rate, cell separation, substrate inhibition. Nanotechnology has become widely used technique for environmental remediations for recent years. At nano-scale materials gain high specific surface area, changed quantum properties and their small size allows them to reach out target contaminant where micro materials cannot enter. So combining nanotechnology with biological treatment method could be a good option to overcome obstacles of biological method and improve remediation efficiency. This work aims to provide up-to-date information on nano-bioremediation of pesticides by overviewing recent studies. Basic information on pesticides, fate and transport mechanisms of both pesticides and nanoparticles and toxicity of nanoparticles are also discussed in this paper in order to understand advantages and possible adverse outcomes of this promising technology.